«»lm 




:«?i«»:;SiSgl! 



, ^^^\^.' ^y c. \^^^w^/ r^^ -^. 



N ' o, 



















A, o^ 






















^ -..o- ^^^ 








'v^o' 



\ 



^o 



" • o. 



^G ^^ '-^' .<^ <C^ 'o.^- ,G^ ^ -.--s* 

^ O " O r^ A.' 'Ov A ^^ * » • S 













.^ 












^^ ,.►, ^r, cy 





G^ ^ 







^ " • ^ • , G^ \!> - 










.0' 




















^^ ^^ 







^/ft^v' 




J O 




^ « 



WINMNSftHBr: 



)REGON COUNt^ 




m 



£• John T. F».ris 




COMING OF THE WHITE MAN 

Statue, City Park, Portland, Oregon 



WINNING THE 
OREGON COUNTRY 






BY 

JOHN T. FARIS 

AUTHOR OF "WINNING THEIR WAY." "MAKING GOOD." ETC. 



NEW YORK 

MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT OF 

THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 

1911 






' * r i j 



Copyright, 191 1, by ' 

Missionary Education Movement of thb 

United States and Canada 



In Exchange 
DuJice University 

iVIAY^'V" 1934 




.i 




TO 

THE BOYS AND GIRLS 

WHO LOVE 

THEIR COUNTRY 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Preface ix 

I The Land of the Ked Man 1 

II Two Thousand Miles for a Book . . . 23 

III Jason Lee Volunteers 43 

IV Marcus Whitman Enlists 63 

V Blazing a New Trail 89 

VI The First Trophies 109 

VII Perils and Conquests 133 

VIII Jason Lee's Dash to Washington . , . 155 

IX Marcus Whitman's Perilous Ride . . .171 

X Guns and Tomahawks 189 

XI Monuments More Lasting than Brass . . 205 

XII The Country Won 223 

Index 233 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Coming of the White Man— Statue, City Park, 
Portland, Oregon Frontispiece 

Map — Original Oregon Country Page 6 

James Cook, Robert Gray, Thomas Jefferson, Wil- 
liam Clark, Meriwether Lewis 

Ta-wis-sis-sim-nim (No Horns on His Head) 

Hi-youts-to-han (Rabbit-Skin Leggings) 

Jason Lee 

**They had arranged to join the train of about two 
hundred hardy trappers and hunters. " 

Page from Jason Lee 's Diary 

** Ship ahoy! You are wanted for Oregon " 

Marcus Whitman 

Anna Pittman Lee 

Nareissa Prentiss Whitman 

H. H. Spalding 

First Printing Press on the Pacific Coast 

Map — Route of Letter to Mrs. Whitman 

First Church on the Pacific Coast 

''Old trunk — which was his companion on all his 



journeys '* 



Whitman 's Party Starting East 

*'Dr. Whitman knelt in the snow and asked for 

God 's guidance and protection " 

Mission Station at Wai-i-lat-pu 

The First Grave of the Martyrs 

Lee Mission Cemetery 

Elder Billy Williams 

vii 



16 
38 
42 
48 

50 

56 

72 

76 

106 

112 

126 

130 

136 

152 

162 
176 

178 
192 
200 
200 
218 



viii Illustrations 

Oregon Institute — the first school for higher educa- 
tion on the Pacific Coast Page 220 

Eaton Hall — one of the buildings of Willamette 

University ' ' 220 

First Presbyterian Church, Seattle, Washington... ^* 222 

Second Avenue, Seattle, Washington ' ' 226 

A Leading Business Thoroughfare, Portland, Ore- 
gon '' 230 

Map — Oregon Country — Boundary, Eoutes, and Mis- 
sion Stations End 



y 



PEEFACE 

Long ago you have learned that there is 
nothing more interesting than the story of a 
real hero. Your blood has been stirred as 
you have read of men and women who have 
gone to distant lands, and you have asked 
for more stories like these. 

It is my privilege to tell you of men and 
women whose lives were filled with events as 
thrilling as any told of those who have gone 
to China or India or Africa or the islands 
of the sea. These events took place right 
here in our own continent. And the heroes 
were men and women who have a right to be 
named as pioneers with Daniel Boone and 
Kit Carson, or as patriots with Paul Eevere 
and General Putnam. 

I believe you will agree with me when you 
read of the three-thousand-mile bridal tour 
across the plains and among hostile Indians ; 
of the narrow escapes in the mountains and 
on the rivers; of the adventures with the 

ix 



X Preface 

Indians whom these men and women went 
to teach ; of the f our-thonsand-mile ride from 
Oregon to Washington City, against time, in 
the dead of winter; of what Whitman and 
Lee did for their country; of that day of 
terror when frenzied Indians slew their best 
friends; and of the results of the work done 
by the martyrs who died at the post of duty. 
May the reading of the volume be as in- 
spiring to you as the preparation of it has 
been to me ! 

John T. Faris. 

Philadelphia, Pa., May 19, 1911. 



THE LAND OF THE RED MAN 



Winning the Oregon Country 

CHAPTER I 

THE LAND OF THE BED MAN 

Hemmed in on the one hand by mountains tipped with 
the clouds of the sky, white with the snow that ages could 
not melt, and on the other by the gray and desolate ocean 
whose width measured nearly half way round the globe, 
* ' Oregon ' ' seemed a fit symbol of remoteness and inaccessi- 
bility. — HiNES. 

One day in 1780 an excited sailor from tlie 
ship Discovery secured leave to spend tlie day 
ashore at Canton, China. He was not ex- 
pected to return before night, but it was still 
morning when he rowed out to the vessel in 
great excitement. He could hardly wait to 
reach the deck to call out to his shipmates : 
<^ WeVe found a gold mine! You know that 
fur coat I got from the Indian at Nootka ? ^ 

^ An island and Indian settlement on the west coast of 
Vancouver Island, at Nootka Sound. See map on page 6. 

3 



4 Winning the Oregon Country 

Cost me only a trinket worth twelve cents. 
Well, IVe just sold it for one hundred dol- 
lars. The man who bought it wants to know 
if we have any more like it. Better take your 
coats and hunt him up while he is in the 
humor to buy.'* 

And so other furs found their way to the 
shrewd Chinese purchaser, who knew that 
the sailors' soft sea-otter skins were worth 
much more than he was giving for them. 

Soon all the men on the Discovery — as well 
as those on Captain Cook's second ship, the 
Resolution — were as excited as the sailor who 
had brought the good news to them. Only a 
few hours before they had been eager to re- 
sume their voyage home to England, after the 
four years they had spent with Captain Cook 
on his exploring trip to American waters. 
But now their only thought was to return at 
once to the friendly fur-clad Indians of Noot- 
ka Sound and the Oregon Country ^ near-by, 
who had been so ready to exchange valuable 
skins for trifles of glass and copper. They 

* Oregon Country and Oregon are used interchangeably 
throughout this book for the territory north of California 
and west of the Eocky Mountains, as marked off by heavy 
line on map at end of book. 



The Land of the Red Man 5 

begged their officers to go back for a cargo of 
furs, and when their request was refused, 
they threatened to seize the vessels. But they 
were compelled to go to England. 

When the news of the vast stores of f ars to 
be bought for a song was scattered far and 
near, in England, on the continent of Europe, 
and in America, the people began to ask, 
'' Where is Nootka Sound? Where is the 
Oregon Country? We never heard of this 
country, where the natives are dressed in 
furs worth a king's ransom ! ' ' Eagerly maps 
were consulted, but maps gave little informa- 
tion. One map, indeed, called the region now 
known as Oregon and Washington '' the Mo- 
zeemlek Country, '^ but more definite infor- 
mation than this it was impossible to secure. 
Even well-informed Americans knew more 
about Kamchatka than they knew about 
Oregon. 

But now all was changed. The lust for 
gain led many traders to the region of the 
Columbia. Their voyages were successful 
almost beyond belief. One fortunate ship- 
owner sold for three thousand dollars furs 
which had cost him an old ax. An English- 
man easily collected five hundred and sixty 



6 Winning the Oeegon Countey 













I ^ ^.^ i ABOUT -^ •«! 



The Land of the Red Man 7 

skins, which he sold for more than twenty 
thousand dollars. 

The returning traders told of the country 
they had seen. They spoke of the forests 
in which thousands of Indians lived in savage 
luxury. These Indians hunted the elk and 
deer, fished in the streams for salmon and 
smelt and herring, and gathered clams from 
the beach. Their every want was supplied 
by a country that was capable of supporting 
many millions. And yet, as was soon 
learned, these Indians were not entirely sat- 
isfied. Even the degraded Chinook Indians 
felt that there was some Power greater than 
themselves. The Indians who lived farther 
inland were especially hungry to learn of the 
Power that created the world. 

They tried to satisfy their hunger for 
knowledge by devising wonder-stories that 
told how the world was peopled. Among the 
Nez Perces, for instance, a myth gained cur- 
rency which told of Kamiah, a monster that, 
merely by breathing, drew grass and trees 
and animals into his mouth. The Coyote god, 
determined to overpower the monster, tied 
himself with a grass rope to a mountain, and 
challenged him. The monster tried to draw 



8 Winning the Oregon Country 

the god into his mouth, bat failed. Then the 
Coyote god killed the monster, and scattered 
bits of his flesh to the north, to the south, to 
the east, to the west. Wherever a bit of flesh 
fell, there a tribe of men sprang up, until 
all the country was peopled. Thereafter the 
Coyote god was supreme, and the world was 
in charge of a keeper, instead of continuing 
the plaything of a destroyer. 

To the explorers who visited this country 
in search of furs or in the vain quest for the 
Northwest passage, the Indians told the 
legend of the first ship that reached the land, 
perhaps about 1725.^ A woman aroused her 
people by telling them she had found on the 
beach what she thought was a whale, but the 
sight of two trees standing upright in it led 
her to decide that it was a monster. On the 
trees were many ropes, and the body shone 
with its copper covering. A bear with a 
man's head came out of the whale and fright- 
ened her. When they heard her story the 
men of the tribe rushed down to the beach to 
attack the thing. To their surprise there 
were two man-faced bears. As they watched, 
the strange beings went ashore. Closer ex- 

* Lyman, The ColumMa Biver, 35. 



The Land of the Red Man 9 

amination led the Indians to decide that 
these were not bears, for they had hands like 
themselves. 

It would not be strange, then, if the ignor- 
ant Indians began to watch the sea for the 
coming of those who would make known to 
them strange things about the dwellers in 
other lands. Many years passed before they 
saw a vessel. But one day in 1775 word 
must have been passed among those who lived 
near the mouth of the great river of a strange 
sight. Great white-topped canoes had come 
out of the sea. These were the ships of the 
Spaniard, Bruno Heceta, who had been look- 
ing for the fabled river of which explorers 
had told for centuries. The ships did not en- 
ter the river. They sailed away when the 
commander was still uncertain whether he 
had discovered a bay or a river. 

Years passed before the entrance to the 
river was again seen by white men. It is 
strange that Captain Cook was not the first 
Englishman to enter the river, for he was sev- 
eral times just within reach of the promon- 
tories which guard the mouth. Captain 
Meares might have gone up the stream in 
1788, for he came so close that Indians on the 



10 Winning the Oregon Country 

shore could have distinguished the sailors on 
the deck of his ship, the Felice. But he passed 
on, and declared that there was no such river 
as that of which the Spaniards had told. 
When Captain Vancouver visited the coast in 
1792, he decided that Meares must be right, 
though he passed so close to the headlands at 
the mouth that he could see the discoloration 
of the sea caused by the great volume of 
river water. 

Then, one day in 1792, the Indians saw a 
ship pause long at the entrance to their river, 
only after nine days to pass on its way. This 
was the American ship, Columbia Rediviva, 
whose Captain was Eobert Gray. He was 
sure he had found the long-sought entrance, 
but he was unable to enter because of the 
strength of the current. So he went on his 
way. A little later he fell in with Vancouver, 
whom he told of his purpose to renew the ef- 
fort to enter the river. He asked the British 
captain to accompany him, but Vancouver 
declared that there was no river there. 
So Gray returned alone. On May 10, 1792, he 
reached the headlands. Next day he sailed 
up the stream until he was twenty miles from 
the ocean. There he anchored. From far 



The Land of the Red Man 11 

and near the Indians came to look at the 
strange visitors. In their canoes they 
swarmed about the ship, eager to see the 
white men at close range, or to trade their 
furs for the baubles offered by the sailors. 

"\^lien the day was done and the Indians 
found their way back to the shore, how they 
must have talked of what they had seen to 
those who gathered with them about the 
camp-fires ! What would they learn next day? 
What wonders were to be revealed to them? 

The days passed, and the vessel remained 
at anchor. Then it sailed slowly up the river 
fifteen miles further, returned to the sea, and 
disappeared in the distance, carrying to the 
world the story of the discovery of the great 
river which was named for the Columbia 
Rediviva, 

Thus the first great event that led to the 
winning of the Oregon Country was due to 
the enterprise of a man who came from the 
United States by sea. The second event of 
importance was a trip of exploration by 
venturesome men who made the journey 
from the East by land. 

This journey by land was the outcome of a 
meeting in 1786 of Thomas Jefferson — the 



12 Winning the Oregon Country 

writer of the Declaration of Independence — 
and John Ledyard, who had been with Cap- 
tain Cook on his voyages to Nootka Sound. 
Ledyard 's tales of the riches of the fur- 
bearing Northwest made the statesman anx- 
ious to secure the fur-bearing country for the 
United States. For a long time he studied 
to see how he could bring to Atlantic ports 
the peltries of the West. 

He did not see his way to act till he became 
President. Then he persuaded two men to 
lead an expedition to the Pacific Northwest. 
They were not to go by sea, as other explor- 
ers had gone, but they were to go west by 
land, cross the Mississippi into the almost un- 
known country beyond, go up the Missouri to 
its source and see if they were not within a 
few miles of the sources of the Columbia. 
The men selected were Captain Meriwether 
Lewis and Captain William Clark, young men 
who had lived on the frontier and had ad- 
mired brave adventurers like Daniel Boone. 
Undaunted by the hardships that they knew 
must be encountered, they were eager to be 
on the way. 

In 1803 the hardy young men set out.^ In 

* For route of Lewis and Clark, see map at end of book. 



The Land of the Red Man 13 

their party were about thirty others, many of 
whom had lived among the Indians. Their 
equipment was peculiar. They carried three 
boats— a keel-boat fifty-five feet long, which 
could travel in three feet of water when 
loaded with twenty-two oarsmen, and two 
small flat-bottomed boats. The sails of these 
boats could be used as tents at night. As the 
explorers rowed up the Missouri, two horses 
were led along the bank, to be at hand when 
needed for hunting. 

The boats were loaded with a strange as- 
sortment of goods. In addition to the cloth- 
ing, tools, firearms, and food, there were coats 
richly laced with gilt braid, red trousers, 
medals, flags, knives, colored handkerchiefs, 
paints, small looking-glasses, beads, and 
other trinkets with which to win the favor of 
the red men. President Jefferson urged the 
explorers to treat the Indians as friends and 
to assure them that the United States would 
protect them. 

The journey was comparatively easy down 
the Ohio, up the Mississippi, and to the 
sources of the Missouri. But when, in the 
summer of 1805, the Eocky Mountains were 
crossed, and the travelers tried to find their 



14 Winning the Oregon Countey 

way over the Bitter Eoot Mountains, their 
real troubles began. *^They must make their 
way over sharp ridges, through terrific moun- 
tain defiles, choked with fallen limbs and 
masses of rock debris.. . .For nearly a month 
they threaded dark forests, over steep hills, 
rocks, and fallen trees ; made their way along 
dangerous cliffs; crossed raging torrents, 
whose icy waters chilled both men and ani- 
mals. Sometimes they encountered storms of 
sleet and snow, again the weather was very 
hot and oppressive. Most of the men became 
sick, and all were much reduced in strength. 
Food was so scanty that they were compelled 
to kill and eat some of the travel-worn 
horses,"^ which they secured from friendly 
Shoshone Indians. 

At last the party reached the Clearwater.. 
There five canoes were built. The rest of the 
journey to the sea was simple; they had only 
to float down the ever-widening stream. 
Sometimes they had to carry their canoes 
around rocky barriers and rapids and water- 
falls, but usually their way was open before 
them. 

One day, while the men were at dinner, five 

* Schaf er, History of the Pacific Northwest, 84-86. 



The Land of the Red Man 15 

curious Indians visited the camp. They were 
received kindly, and were dismissed with a 
gift of tobacco which was to be smoked with 
the tribe when they reached home. After din- 
ner the Indians were in haste to be gone ; they 
began running and were still running when 
they passed out of sight. Later events 
showed that they paused not till they reached 
their tribe. Their report of the visitors so 
excited the braves that about two hundred of 
them, led by a chief, went out to meet those 
who had shown themselves so friendly. In 
their diary Lewis and Clark told of this visit : 
**They formed a regular procession, keep- 
ing time to the music, or, rather, noise of 
their drums, which they accompanied with 
their voices; and as they advanced, they 
ranged themselves in a semicircle around us, 
and continued singing for some time. We 
then smoked with them all, and communicated 
as well as we could by signs our friendly in- 
tentions toward every nation, and our joy at 
finding ourselves surrounded by our children. 
After this we proceeded to distribute pres- 
ents among them, giving the principal chief 
a large medal, a shirt, and a handkerchief ; to 
the second chief, a medal of a smaller size; 



16 Winning the Oregon Country 

and to a third, a small medal and a handker- 
chief.'' 

As the Indian visitors scattered to their 
teepees, they carried with them happy 
memories of the white men. And as they 
went out to fish and hunt they met other In- 
dians to whom they told their pleasant im- 
pressions of the visitors who healed the sick 
and made peace between the nations. So 
from tribe to tribe the word was carried until 
all along the river the coming of Lewis and 
Clark was eagerly awaited. 

At last, after nearly two years, the end of 
the journey was reached — the sea was in 
sight. *^ Great joy in camp. Ocean in view! 
0, the joy!'' is the entry made in the jour- 
nal of the party. 

After spending a hard winter at the mouth 
of the Columbia, Lewis and Clark turned back 
by the way they had come. But first they told 
the Indians why they had come to this land. 
Then they gave some of the natives copies of 
a note which the recipients were asked to 
hand to any white men who might visit them. 
A rough map of the journey was included on 
the sheet with the note. One of these papers 
later reached Philadelphia in 1807, by way of 




JAMES COOK ROBERT GRAY 

THOMAS JEFFERSON 

WILLIAM CLARK MERIWETHER LEWIS 



The Land of the Red Man 17 

Canton, China ! It had been given by a faith- 
ful Indian to the captain of a trading vessel. 
On a great pine tree near the mouth of the 
Columbia Captain Clark left another record 
of his journey which read : 

*^Wm. Clark December 3d 1805 by 

land from the U. States in 

1804 & 5.'' 

~ Still another record was cut on the way 
home. In the valley of the Yellowstone, on a 
mass of yellow sandstone four hundred feet 
high, these words were left: 

<*Wm. Clark, 
July 25, 1806.'* 

But the best record of the journey was 
made in the hearts of the Nez Perces (the 
men of the Pierced Noses), who came out in 
force to meet the travelers when they reached 
the beautiful Kamiah Valley, in what is now 
Idaho — the valley named for the monster 
of Nez Perce legend. On May 11, 1806, the 
great men of the tribe met about the council- 
fire and talked with the white chiefs. Of 
course Lewis and Clark could not talk with 
the Nez Perces, but they spoke in English to 



18 Winning the Oregon Country 

one of their own men who could translate the 
message into French to a French half-breed 
who translated it into Minnetaree to his wife. 
She translated the speeches into Shoshone^ 
and a young Shoshone completed the trans- 
lation into Nez Perce ! It was in this rounda- 
bout way that the Nez Perces first heard of 
the good intentions of their visitors. And in 
the same roundabout fashion they assured 
the visitors of their friendship. 

The Indians tell the story that the entire 
party of explorers were once very near death 
at the hands of some of these same Nez 
Perces, but were saved by a Nez Perce 
woman, Wat-ku-ese. She had been taken pris- 
oner and carried far away. While a captive 
she saw some white people, probably in the 
Bed Eiver settlements. She managed to es- 
cape, and was treated kindly by the whites, 
whom she called the So-yap-po — the crowned 
ones — ^because of their hats. By this name the 
white people are still known among the Nez 
Perces. Little by little she made her way 
back to her old home. She was with a com- 
pany of Nez Perces when Lewis and Clark 
came among them. As Wat-ku-ese lay dying 
in her wigwam, she heard the braves talking 



The Land of the Red Man 19 

of their plans to kill the white men. *^Do 
them no harm, ^ ^ she cried. * ^ They are the So- 
yap-po, who were so kind to me. Do not be 
afraid of them, go near to them.'^ They lis- 
tened to her, welcomed the white men, and re- 
ceived from them the first hint that their long- 
ings for knowledge about the Creator could 
be satisfied. For there were some among the 
visitors who tried to tell them of God. It was 
difficult to understand just what the explana- 
tion meant; the sign language was so unsat- 
isfactory. As the white men talked, they 
pointed to the sky, and the poor Nez Perces 
thought they were being told that the sun was 
the creator of the world. What wonder, then, 
if they felt they were right in worshiping the 
sun! 

Not many years after the return of Lewis 
and Clark to the East, it began to look as if 
Jefferson was to see the fulfilment of his 
dream — the bringing of the rich furs to the 
Atlantic ports. In 1810 John Jacob Astor of 
New York, making up his mind to seek wealth 
on the Western coast, sent a ship and sixty 
men to the Columbia. This Company arrived 
at the mouth of the river on March 22, 1811, 
passed up stream some distance, erected a 



20 Winning the Oregon Country 

fort, a store and other buildings, and called 
the settlement Astoria. This was the first set- 
tlement in the Oregon Country. In 1812 re- 
enforcements came both by land and by sea. 
Trading posts were opened at a number of 
points in the interior. The Pacific Fur 
Company — as Astor's Company was called 
— was now well established. 

The Northwest Fur Company of Montreal 
sent an expedition overland into the new 
country. This reached Astoria in July, 1811. 
The two companies traded with the Indians 
until October, 1813, when the Pacific Com- 
pany sold its forts and business to the 
Northwest Company. 

The Hudson Bay Company — the rival of 
the Northwest Company — had also pushed its 
way to the Pacific, and was seeking a share of 
the fur trade. Side by side these two com- 
panies continued their work till they became 
one in 1821, under the name of the Hudson 
Bay Company. 

Perhaps the Indians thought at first that 
the traders of the fur companies were su- 
perior beings, but they soon learned that 
these traders were only treasure seekers. 
They wanted furs, and their only thought of 



The Land of the Red Man 21 

the Indians was to use them in the capture of 
the sea-otter and other fur-bearing creatures. 
They were kind to the natives when they 
thought it paid them to be kind, but often they 
played the tyrant. 

In time many of the poor Indians were re- 
duced to actual slavery. For from five to 
fifteen blankets a strong man was bought and 
sold. Sometimes one of the Company *s white 
hunters would own two or three of these 
slaves, whom he would take with him on hunt- 
ing and trapping excursions. The slaves 
would fish and cook and care for the camp 
when out in the forest, and when at home 
would take the place of paid servants in the 
families of the men who claimed them. 

But a better day was coming, when the In- 
dians would learn that the white man had 
something better to teach them than the lust 
for wealth. 



TWO THOUSAND MILES FOR A 

BOOK 



CHAPTER n 

TWO THOUSAND MILES FOB A BOOK 

Taken altogether, it may be said that this event [the 
visit of the Indians to St. Louis], as preserved in these 
various ways, constitutes one of the most pleasing and sig- 
nificant, though pathetic, incidents in Indian history. It 
was, moreover, fragrant with results. — ^Lyman. 

When the Indians visited a fort of the Hud- 
son Bay Company on Sunday, they would see 
a flag flying above the buildings which was 
not there on other days. When they asked 
what the flag meant, they were told something 
of the meaning of the day. Soon Sunday be- 
came known among the Indians as *^flag 
day.'' Little by little they learned more of 
the meaning of the day. Some of the explor- 
ers who visited the country told them about 
God, the Bible, the Sabbath, and the religion 
of the white men. Twenty-four Iroquois In- 
dians who came from across the mountains 
brought them word of some of the things they 
had learned from **the Black Robes,/' as the 

25 



26 Winning the Oregon Country 

Catholic missionaries had been called in the 
old home in Canada. 

The old men told how, many years before, 
Lewis and Clark had talked to them of some 
of the same things. Those great white chiefs 
had said that the Christian religion was the 
secret of the white man's power, and that the 
Indians could learn of this religion in the 
white man's Book of Heaven. Some day, 
they had been told, missionaries would come 
from the country toward the rising of the 
sun, and tell them all about this Book. 

The Nez Perce braves, who lived far in the 
interior, heard just enough of these things 
to whet their appetite for more. They did 
not know exactly what they wanted or why 
they wanted it. They did not think that the 
revelation they were eager for would make 
them like the white men. They had no wish 
to be like the white men. They were savages, 
and they would have been surprised by the 
suggestion of becoming anything but what 
they were. They loved to destroy their ene- 
mies. Ho-has-till-pilp, one of their chiefs, 
wore a collar of human scalps, ornamented 
by the thumbs of men slain by him in battle ; 
and he was no exception among the men of 



Two Thousand Miles for a Book 27 

the tribe. Yet to their friends the Nez 
Perces were hospitable, quiet, and peace- 
able. 

When at night the braves gathered about 
their camp-fires the conversation some- 
times turned to the longing for the promised 
missionaries. As the boys grew to manhood 
and took their places with their fathers, they 
listened to the tales of those who had talked 
with Lewis and Clark and later visitors. And 
there were earnest ones among the young men 
who wondered as they heard what their fath- 
ers told them of the God of the white men 
and the Book that spoke of him. 

One by one the old men died with their 
longing for more light unsatisfied, but there 
were still Nez Perce braves whose eyes were 
turned toward the East. Would the messen- 
ger never come! 

Once they thought he had come when they 
met Captain Bonneville, a fur trader. He 
was surprised to note that they observed cer* 
tain sacred days. Once, when they were about 
to set out for a great hunt, he saw them per- 
form some religious rites. Then they offered 
up to the Great Spirit prayers for safety and 
success. Captain Bonneville was amazed by 



28 Winning the Oregon Country 

these and other evidences of a deep religious 
spirit. When he found that they were eager 
to learn something of the white man's re- 
ligion, he gathered them about him. ^^Many 
a time," he says, *'was my little lodge 
thronged, or rather piled with hearers, for 
they lay on the ground, one leaning over the 
other, until there was no further room, all 
listening with greedy ears to the wonders 
which the Great Spirit had revealed to the 
white man. No other subject gave them half 
the satisfaction, or commanded half the at- 
tention ; and but few scenes of my life remain 
so freshly in my memory, or are so pleasantly 
recalled to my contemplation, as these hours 
of intercourse with a distant and benighted 
race in the midst of the desert. ' ' 

Those long talks with Captain Bonneville 
made them more than ever hungry for the 
mysterious Book of Heaven, which — they 
were told again — ^would be brought to 
them. 

But the Book came not. Still they talked 
of it, for it had become the greatest thing in 
the lives of some of them. The things which 
had always had the first place seemed of 
minor consequence. They hunted, they fished, 



Two Thousand Miles for a Book 29 

they went abroad on forays, as they always 
had done, but wherever they went, whatever 
they did, the thought of the Book was not far 
from their minds. On their return home they 
would talk of their desires as they gathered 
about the camp-fires. 

Then came a night when the silence which 
followed the talk about the white man^s re- 
ligion was broken by one of the old men: 

* * They do not come to us. Why do we not 
go to them? It is a hard trail of many 
moons, but we must have the Book. * ' 

At first the braves must have been startled. 
Go for the Book? How could they go? 
Where would they go? But all these ques- 
tions were answered as the conviction came, 
**We must go.'' 

The matter under discussion was so impor- 
tant that a tribal council was called, and it 
was decided to send five men to the East, 
charging them to go on till they found some 
one who could give them the Book of Heaven. 
Then the question was : 

^^Who shall go?" 

It was finally decided to send three old men 
and two young men on the journey into the 
great unknown land beyond the Eocky Moun- 



30 Winning the Oregon Country 

tains.^ Volunteers were not lacking for the 
arduous undertaking, but from those who of- 
fered their services the choice fell on these 
men: 

1. Tip-ya-lah-na-jeh-nin (Black or Speak- 
ing Eagle), whose grandson, Kip-ka-pel-i- 
kan, was afterward for many years a promi- 
nent farmer of the Kamiah Valley. Tip-ya- 
lah-na-jeh-nin was especially anxious to go, 
for he was one of the chiefs who talked with 
Lewis and Clark when they were in the val- 
ley. 

2. Ka-ou-pu (Man of the Morning or Day- 
light), also an old man. His father was a 
Nez Perce, but his mother belonged to the 
Flathead tribe. 

3. Hi-youts-to-han (Eabbit-Skin Leggings) 
was the nephew of Tip-ya-lah-na-jeh-nin. 

4. Ta-wis-sis-sim-nim (No Horns on His 
Head) was only about twenty years old, but 
he was as much in earnest in seeking the light 
as the old men of the party. 

The name of the fifth man who made up the 

* Historians state that earlier attempts had been made. 
Several young men had been sent to a distant school that 
they might bring back knowledge of the Book. In 1830 an 
expedition had been sent to St. Louis for the same purpose. 
Evidently this expedition failed. 



Two Thousand Miles foe a Book 31 

company lias not been preserved. He proved 
to be a man of faint heart, for he returned 
after being with the party for two days. His 
excuse was that he was too old to endure the 
hardships of the way, but older men than he 
persisted, and their names are cherished tra- 
ditions among the Nez Perces to this 
day. 

What a story the record of that journey 
would make ! But nothing is known concern- 
ing it. The survivors, true to their Indian 
natures, said little about their adventures: 
it was enough to report that they were faith- 
ful to their trust. 

One who lived among the Indians many 
years and knew their ways has drawn a vivid 
picture of the weary way. 

**We think of the hostile tribes through 
whose territory they went those two thou- 
sand miles, traveling by night and resting by 
day; we note the many interviews they had 
with doubtful bands, and the counsel of those 
whom they could trust. What little fires they 
kindled in secluded glens, which kept watch 
as silently as the stars watched the four! 
Now they feasted on venison, or mountain 
sheep, or antelope; and now, too prudent to 



32 Winning the Oregon Country 

hunt, it was beaver or muskrat ; no unsavory 
dish at a camp-fire, when one has for sauce a 
backwoods appetite/' 

Two thousand miles! It is a long, hard 
journey, even in a Pullman car on a limited 
train. But think what it must have been over 
a trackless plain, across mountains, through 
forests, down river valleys ! 

At last they learned that they were near a 
town where they might be able to learn what 
they wanted to know — St. Louis, then little 
more than a frontier post where a few thou- 
sand people made their homes. Early on an 
October morning in 1832 the eyes of the trav- 
elers were startled by the sight of the houses 
of the little settlement^the first town they 
had seen. But if they were surprised by the 
strange scenes they gave no sign. Stolidly 
they pushed their silent way on moccasined 
feet through the streets. They looked neither 
to the right nor to the left at the few men 
who paused to stare curiously at them, or at 
the women who peered at them from the win- 
dows. Of course the people looked at them. 
Ordinary Indians were seen mingled daily f 
with the residents, and attracted no attention. 
But these Indians were so peculiarly dressed 



Two Thousand Miles for a Book 33 

and their features were so different from 
those of the red men of the Mississippi val- 
ley that curiosity was excusable. 

They had not gone far when word was car- 
ried to General Clark, in command at the 
barracks, that four Indians evidently from a 
distant part of the country had come to town. 
Little did the general think that these were 
representatives of the tribe that had been so 
kind to *Hhe redhead chief twenty-five years 
before when, as a captain, he was the partner 
of Lewis on his great exploring tour. 

But General Clark could not have received 
his guests more courteously if he had known 
who they were. Calling two of his officers, 
he asked them to go to meet the strangers 
and bring them to him at the barracks, where 
he would take care of them while they were in 
the city. 

When the Indians entered the General's 
quarters, they greeted him with calm dignity, 
then took their seats in silence. He waited 
to learn their errand, but they had nothing to 
say. Had they not already waited long? 
Why should there be any unseemly hurry 
now? General Clark thought that they had 
probably come about some treaty, or bearing 



34 Winning the Oregon Country 

a complaint against some action of the gov- 
ernment or its representatives. 

While some speculated as to their mission, 
others asked, ''Who are theyf "Where do 
they come from!^' There were many sugges- 
tions, but they were only guesses till a man 
who had some knowledge of the Indian tribes 
looked at them, and said they were the Nez 
Perces or Pierced Noses of the lower Co- 
lumbia. As Nez Perces the tribe is known to 
this day — in spite of the fact that few of them 
pierce their noses. Sometimes they used a 
bit of wampum as a nose ornament, but it was 
not necessary to pierce the member to accom- 
modate the decoration. The native name for 
the tribe was ''Cho-pun-nish.'' 

Days passed, and still the Indians said 
nothing as to the purpose of their visit. 
Some of the aides grew impatient, but Gen- 
eral Clark had not dealt with the native 
Americans without learning that they must 
be given their own time. ''Don't hurry 
them, ' ' he said. 

While he waited patiently for the day when 
his visitors would speak, he planned amuse- 
ments for them, and in every way treated 
them as honored guests. 



Two Thousand Miles for a Book 35 

At last the Indians told of their search. 
They wanted the white man's Book of 
Heaven. Woald General Clark give it to 
them? They wanted to know of God as the 
white man knew him. Would he tell them? 
They wanted a teacher who would go with 
them to the Columbia and open to them the 
mysteries of life. Would he send one? 

General Clark did not know just what to 
say. He told them a little about God — per- 
haps as much as he felt they could under- 
stand. He was a member of Christ Church 
(Episcopal), and he was eager to satisfy the 
seekers after God. But he had no Bible in 
any language the seekers used. And 
he was not in command of missionaries, but 
of soldiers. So how could he satisfy the re- 
quest made by the children from the West? 

All winter the Nez Perces waited, hoping to 
learn more than had yet been told them. But 
before many weeks the unaccustomed manner 
of living began to tell on the old men, already 
weakened by the hard journey. Tip-ya-lah- 
na-jeh-nin passed away, and was buried from 
the cathedral, according to the records still 
preserved. His long quest was ended, and he 
was satisfied sooner than any of his compan- 



36 Winning the Oregon Country 

ions, as he saw face to face the God whose 
Book they were seeking. Not long after 
Ka-ou-pu died also. The sick men were ten- 
derly nursed by Mrs. Clark, but she was un- 
able to do anything for them but make their 
last hours easy. 

After the death of Tip-ya-lah-na-jeh-nin, 
and while Ka-ou-pu was sick, there came to 
St. Louis an Indian who spoke and wrote 
English. He belonged to the Wyandotte Na- 
tion, then living in Ohio. He had been sent out 
by his tribe to look at the lands beyond the 
Mississippi, which had been offered to them 
by the government if they would agree to 
move. On his way he stopped to see General 
Clark. A letter which he wrote on January 
19, 1833, to a friend in New York City, gave 
the impressions of the Nez Perces as formed 
by an eye-witness, and tells the history of the 
delegation : 

'^I was struck with their appearance. They 
differ from any tribe of Indians I have ever 
seen: small in size, delicately formed, small 
limbs, and the most exact symmetry through- 
out except the head. . . . From the point 
of the nose to the apex of the head, there is 
a perfect straight line, the protuberance of 



Two Thousand Miles for a Book 37 

the forehead is flattened or leveled. . . . 
This is produced by a pressure upon the cra- 
nium while in infancy. 

** General Clark related to me the object of 
their mission, and, my dear friend, it is im- 
possible for me to describe to you my feel- 
ings while listening to his narrative. . . . 
It appeared that some white man had pene- 
trated into their country, and happened to be 
a spectator of one of their religious cere- 
monies which they scrupulously perform at 
stated periods. He informed them that their 
mode of worshiping the Supreme Being was 
radically wrong. . . . He also informed 
them that the white people away toward the 
rising of the sun had been put in possession 
of the true mode of worshiping the Great 
Spirit. They had a Book containing direc- 
tions how to conduct themselves in order to 
enjoy his favor and hold converse with him; 
and with this guide no one need go astray, 
but every one that would follow the 
directions laid down there could enjoy, in this 
life, his favor, and after death would be re- 
ceived into the country where the Great 
Spirit resides, and live forever with him. 

**Upon receiving this information, they 



38 Winning the Oregon Country 

called a national council to take the subject 
into consideration. Some said, if this be true, 
. . . the sooner we know it the better. 
They accordingly deputed four of their chiefs 
to proceed to St. Louis." 

In the spring, the two Nez Perces who were 
still living made up their minds to start on 
the weary journey back to their home valley. 
General Clark was a true host who knew how 
not only to welcome the coming guests, but 
also to heap upon them parting gifts. On the 
night before their departure, he gave them a 
banquet in his home. After the meal was 
over, he asked Ta-wis-sis-sim-nim to address 
the company. Then the silent man spoke 
words that stirred the hearts of his hearers 
as to-day — translated into English — they stir 
the hearts and bring tears to the eyes of those 
who read. This is the speech of ' ' No-Horns- 
on-His-Head, " as reported by many who 
have written of that eventful day : 

*^I came to you over the trail of many 
moons, from the setting sun. You were the 
friends of my fathers, who have all gone the 
long way. I came with an eye partly open 
for my people who sit in darkness. I go back 




TA-WIS-SIS-SIM-NIM (XO HCRXS OX HIS HEAD) 

'*I eame to you over the trail of man}- moons" 



Two Thousand Miles for a Book 39 

with both eyes closed. How can I go back 
blind to my blind people? I made my way to 
you with strong arms through many enemies 
and strange lands that I might carry back 
much to them. I go back with both arms 
broken and empty! Two fathers came with 
us ; they were the braves of many snows and 
wars. We leave them asleep here by your 
great water and teepees. They were tired in 
many moons, and their moccasins wore 
out. 

**My people sent me to get the white 
man's Book of Heaven. You took me to 
where you allow your women to dance, as we 
do not ours; and the Book was not there! 
You took me to where they worship the 
Great Spirit with candles, and the Book was 
not there! You showed me images of the 
Great Spirit and pictures of the Good Land 
beyond, but the Book was not among them to 
tell me the way. I am going back the long 
trail to my people in the dark land. You 
make my feet heavy with gifts, and my moc- 
casins will grow old in carrying them, and 
yet the Book is not among them! When I 
tell my poor blind people, after one more 



40 Winning the Oregon Country 

snow, in the big council, that I did not bring 
the Book, no word will be spoken by our old 
men or by our young braves. One by one 
they will rise up and go out in silence. My 
people will die in darkness, and they will go 
on a long path to other hunting-grounds. No 
white man will go with them, and no white 
man's Book to make the way plain. I have 
no more words.'' 

The journey home was made as easy as 
possible for the two disappointed men. They 
were put on board a Missouri Eiver steamer 
whose captain planned to go far toward the 
head- waters of the river — ^'the first fire- 
canoe that ever made the long trip of twenty- 
two hundred miles" to the mouth of the Yel- 
lowstone. 

We know something of that trip through 
the artist George Catlin, who was at the time 
traveling through the West making pictures 
of typical Indians. He was so much im- 
pressed by the travelers from St. Louis that 
he asked them to sit for their portraits. 
These very portraits are now in existence, 
so that it is possible to-day to see what man- 
ner of men were these seekers after God. One 
has only to go to the Smithsonian Institution 



Two Thousand Miles for a Book 41 

at Washington and find the Catlin pictures 
numbered 145 and 146.^ 

In 1835 Mr. Catlin wrote in one of his 
Smithsonian reports: 

^' These two men, when I painted them, 
were in beautiful Sioux dresses, which had 
been presented them in a talk with the Sioux, 
who treated them very kindly, while passing 
through the Sioux Country. . . . When 
I first heard the object of their mission I 
could scarcely believe it, but upon conversing 
with General Clark, on a future occasion^ 1 
was fully convinced of the fact. " 

One of the two men was never to see bia 
home again. Ta-wis-^is-sim-nim, who made 
the sorrowful speech at the banquet, died 
when near the mouth of the Yellowstone, 
Only Hi-youts-to-han was left of the four ! 

What a lonely time he must have had as 
day succeeded day during his tramp from the 
Yellowstone to his people. 

Somehow the waiting Nez Perces in the 
Kamiah Valley learned that the returning 
delegation sent out so long before was near at 
hand. A large band went many miles to na«et 

* The illustrations in this chapter were photographed x'roia 
Mi. Catlin 's pictures. 



42 Winning the Oregon Country 

the wanderers. For days they looked in vain 
for representatives of their tribe. At last 
their hearts bounded as they saw Hi-yonts- 
to-han when he was yet a long way off. He 
was alone — perhaps he had left his compan- 
ions a day's march beMnd him. 

Eagerly they pushed on till they could hear 
the shouts of their comrade. "What was he 
saying? Something about the Book! Did 
he have it? At length they made out the 
words, *^A man will be sent with the Book!'' 

So Hi-youts-to-han found his way back to 
his home with a message of cheer on his lips, 
even if there was bitter disappointment in his 
heart. He hoped that a man would come with 
the Book, and he gave expression to his hope. 

He did not hope in vain. 




HI-YOUTS-TO-HAN (RABBBIT-SKIK LEGGINGS) 

The only survivor of the party 



JASON LEE VOLUNTEERS 



CHAPTER III 

JASON LEE VOLUNTEERS 

* ' Now there opens a chapter in American history, that for 
heroes and heroism, boldness of enterprise, plots, moral and 
physical daring, hardly has its equal in the brightest pages 
of fiction." — Bareows. 

Meanwhile the letter of the Indian agent — 
referred to in the last chapter^ — found its 
way to New York City. It was published in 
the New York Christian Advocate and Jour- 
nal and Z ion's Herald.^ Within a few 
weeks men and women and boys and girls 
were talking of the far-away Indian seekers 
after God. Imagination was stirred by the 
story from St. Louis, so like the Gospel story 
of the wise men who came from the East to 
see Jesus. In the cities and villages of New 
England, among the valleys and hills of New 
York and Pennsylvania, and among the pio- 
neers in Ohio and Indiana and Illinois, the 

*See page 36. 
* March 1, 1833, p. 1. 

45 



46 Winning the Oregon Country 

people said, ' ' The Nez Perces must have their 
missionaries." Dr. Wilbur Fisk, president of 
Wesleyan University, wrote a challenge which 
was printed in the Christian Advocate and 
Journal and Z ion's Herald only three weeks 
later than the letter from which a quotation 
already has been given :^ 

^^hear! hear! 
'^Who will respond to the call from beyond 
the Rocky Mountains 9 

*^We are for having a mission established 
at once. Let two suitable men, unencumbered 
with families and possessing the spirit of 
martyrs, throw themselves into the nation, 
live with them, learn their language, preach 
Christ to them, and — as the way opens — in- 
troduce schools, agriculture, and the arts of 
civilized life. The means for these improve- 
ments can be introduced through the fur trad- 
ers, and by the reenforcements with which 
from time to time we can strengthen the mis- 
sion. Money shall be forthcoming. I will be 
bondsman for the Church. All we want is the 
men. Who will go? Who? I know of one 

* March 22, 1833, p. 2. 



Jason Lee Volunteers 47 

young man who I think will go ; and I know 
of no one like him for the enterprise. If he 
will go (and I have written him on the sub- 
ject), we only want another, and the mission 
will be commenced the coming season. Were 
I young and healthy and unencumbered, how 
joyfully would I go! But this honor is re- 
served for another. Bright will be his crown : 
glorious his reward." 

Perhaps some readers sneered at this as 
the call of a dreamer. But the writer was 
not a visionary ; he was a man with a vision. 
With the eye of a prophet he saw the begin- 
ning of the work, the progress, and even the 
martyrdom of some of those who went. His 
only mistake was in thinking that the fur 
companies could be counted on to assist the 
missionaries in their efforts to civilize the 
Indians. 

There were many who insisted that the 
story of the Indian delegation was a fable de- 
vised to make ridiculous those who were fool- 
ish enough to believe it. For a little while 
it seemed that. they were right, for when let- 
ters were written to Washington asking for 
particulars about the Indians for whom the 
appeal was made, the reply came that the 



48 Winning the Oregon Country 

government liad no knowledge of any such 
tribe as the Nez Perces, or Flatheads, as some 
insisted on calling them. But the laughter of 
those who found pleasure in saying, *'I told 
you so,'' was silenced when Catlin the artist 
sent a letter of inquiry to General Clark at 
St. Louis. The General replied: *'The story 
is true." At once Catlin said, *^ Publish it to 
the world.'' 

Then Dr. Fisk was asked who he thought 
was the best man to go to the West. With- 
out an instant's hesitation he answered: 

^ ^ I know but one man, Jason Lee. ' ' 

* * And who is Jason Lee ? ' ' was the question 
that came to the minds of thousands. 

Jason Lee was a muscular young man, six 
feet three inches in height, and thirty-two 
years old. He was the son of a pioneer Ca- 
nadian farmer. After years of work in 
quieter fields, he went up to the forests 
where, though in company with the rough 
lumbermen, he steadfastly resisted the temp- 
tations of the logging-camp. While on a visit 
to his home he attended a revival meeting. 
There was a severe struggle with his will be- 
fore he rose in his place and quietly declared 
his purpose to live a Christian life. 




JASON LEE 

I have not forgotten the red men of the West' 



Jasox Lee Volunteers 49. 

Jason Lee went back to work among the 
lumbermen for several years until he knew 
that God was calling him to be a minister. 
Then he worked his way through academy 
and college. He wanted to be a missionary 
to the Indians of the far West, but he became 
pastor of a church in Canada until God should 
open the way. A sentence from a letter to a 
friend shows where his heart was: ^^I have 
not forgotten the red men of the West, though 
I am not yet among them. ' ' The letter from 
Dr. Fisk, urging him to go to the Nez Perces, 
came to him while he was yearning for the 
Indians who had not the gospel. 

There could be but one answer to that let- 
ter. Jason Lee decided to go West. He per- 
suaded his nephew, Daniel Lee, to go with 
him. Two other campanions arranged to join 
the missionary party when it reached Inde- 
pendence, Missouri.^ 

That sounds so simple that one is apt to 
forget the heroic consecration of the men 
who were about to follow on the trail of the 
Indian seekers after God. They were to go 
to a region wild and unknown — a no man's 
land, by agreement between the United States 

* For route of Jason Lee, see map at end of book. 



50 Winning the Oregon Country 

and Great Britain, and it was to remain a no 
man's land for several years longer. They 
must travel through dangerous regions 
among Indians who might prove hostile. 
Their journey would be far more difficult than 
that made by the four visitors from the Co- 
lumbia to St. Louis, for they were not used 
to the country, and they had no woodcraft to 
depend on. Their departure was made 
harder by the weeping of friends and loved 
ones who declared they would never again 
look on the faces of the missionaries. 

But the difficulties before the beginning of 
the journey were conquered, as were the dif- 
ficulties of the journey itself, by dependence 
on God whose messengers they were. Because 
they loved him, hard things became easy for 
them and their hearts were filled with joy. 

Early in 1834 Jason Lee and his nephew 
crossed the Alleghanies to Pittsburg, went by 
river to St. Louis, and on horseback to the 
frontier hamlet of Independence on the Mis- 
souri River. There they had arranged to join 
the train of about two hundred hardy trap- 
pers and hunters who, like themselves, were 
bound for the far West. It was necessary 
in those days for travelers beyond the Mis- 




"they had arranged to join the train of arout two hun- 
dred HARDY TRAPPERS AND HUNTERS" 



Jason Lee Volunteeks 51 

souri to keep together, for common defense 
against the Indians. 

But aside from the fact that all were jour- 
neying toward the setting sun and the fur- 
ther fact that all feared the treacherous In- 
dians, the missionaries and those with whom 
they traveled had little in common. The 
plainsmen were bound on a quest for rich 
furs ; the missionaries were seeking the people 
who wished to know of God. How astonished 
the men must have been when they learned 
the purpose of the tall man and his friends 
from the East! Probably more than one of 
the company urged them to give up their folly 
and go on with them in search of the fortune 
which could be secured so easily. To all such 
invitations there would be but one answer: 
they had put their hands to the plow, and they 
could not turn back. Mr. Lee's only comment 
was written in his diary : 

^^ These men incur more danger for a few 
beaver skins than we do to save souls; and 
yet some who call themselves Christians 
would have persuaded us to abandon our en- 
terprise because of the danger accompanying 
if 

Then most of the men would turn from the 



52 Winning the Oregon Country 

''fool missionaries'' and go to their own 
tents, there to make night hideous with their 
yells and drunken shouts. But Jason Lee 
and his friends did not listen to the tumult. 
They were holding a little meeting for thanks- 
giving and prayer — thanksgiving that God 
had brought them so far on their way, prayer 
that they might be led over the imcharted 
plains and across the pathless mountains to 
their desired haven. And they also prayed 
that they might help their fellow travelers 
who were so far from God. 

That petition was granted. Mr. Lee soon 
became a great favorite among the men. 
They admired him because of his ability to 
endure hardships with the best of them, his 
readiness to do his share and more than his 
share of the work of the camp and the trail, 
and his manly, straightforward ways. Before 
long they were listening respectfully to his 
words spoken in private, urging them to live 
more carefully. Again and again he would 
reprove rough men for their profanity. Some 
who knew the character of those to whom he 
was speaking would not have been surprised 
to see him shot dead for his words, but not 
once was there any trouble. One who was 



Jason Lee Volunteers 58 

in the camp at the time said later that Mr. 
Lee disarmed all criticism by the affectionate 
manner of his reproving words. One by one 
the men became his fast friends. Whenever 
announcement was made that he would 
preach, there was sure to be a respectful and 
appreciative congregation. Thus, even be- 
fore the field was reached, the missionary 
was about his Master's business. 

Some men would have said there was too 
much else to do, and they would have excused 
themselves from Christian work — perhaps 
even from Bible reading and prayer. But 
Mr. Lee was never too busy to remember that 
he was a Christian. His diary is full of just 
such simple statements as this — the story of 
one Sunday in May, 1834: 

** Decamped early this morning, but losing 
the trail, came to a stop about one o'clock. 
The day has been spent in a manner not at 
all congenial with my wishes. Traveling, la- 
boring to take wire of the animals by all, 
cursing, swearing, and shouting by the com- 
pany. Read some of the Psalms and felt that 
truly my feelings accorded with David's 
when he so much longed for the house of God. 
I have found very little time for reading, 



54 Winning the Oregon Country 

writing, or meditation since leaving Liberty, 
for I am so constantly engaged in driving 
stock, encamping, and making preparations 
for the night, and decamping in the morning. 
But still we find a few minutes to call our lit- 
tle party together and commit ourselves and 
our cause in prayer to God.'* 

For weeks they traveled through the buf- 
falo country, where meat was to be had in 
abundance. Hunting parties were regularly 
sent out to bring in a supply of the animals. 
But soon game became scarce, and entire days 
were passed without eating meat. Even when 
meat could be secured, it was often impossible 
to cook it, lest prowling bands of Indians, 
seeing the smoke from the fire, should pounce 
upon the camp. At such times there was 
nothing to do but go supperless to bed. 
Many, however, could not go to bed at all; 
they must keep awake to guard the camp 
against the stealthy approach of Indians 
under cover of the night. Only by constant 
vigilance could they hope to win their way to 
their goal. 

Soon after the party crossed the conti- 
nental divide — where the waters flow on one 
side toward the Gulf of Mexico and on the 



Jason Lee Volunteers 55 

other side to the Pacific ocean — a party of 
Indians approached the camp. Instantly all 
were about to repel the expected attack. 
But there was no attack. It was soon learned 
that the Indians were on a friendly mission. 
Somehow the Nez Perces and the Flatheads 
had heard that the longed-for men with the 
Book were coming from the East, and they 
had sent representatives to welcome the vis- 
itors. A young chief named Ish-hol-hol- 
hoats-hoats was their spokesman. Eagerly 
he told ^fr. Lee that his people were waiting 
for him, had been waiting for him long. He 
had only to make liis home among them, and 
the best that they had was his. Let him 
choose his own ])Iace to live, whether among 
the Nez Perces or among the Flatheads. But 
he must hurry ! They had waited so patiently 
for him, and now that he was near they could 
hardly contain themselves for joy and im- 
patience. 

The hearts of Lee and his companions were 
deeply stirred. They wanted to follow the 
visitors at once, but they knew it would be 
wiser to study the country before^ deciding 
on the station for the beginning of their work. 
So once again the representatives of the In- 



56 Winning the Oregon Country 

dians who were seeking after God sorrow- 
fully turned back to their people, and, as be- 
fore, they were without the Book. But this 
time the delay was not to be long. 

For two weeks the hunters stopped to 
gather meat for the long journey toward the 
Pacific. The missionaries were impatient to 
be on their way, but they knew that they must 
have suflficient supplies if they were to suc- 
ceed in pushing through a country where food 
was even more scarce than where they were. 
Yet even here, Lee could go on with his work. 
On July 27, 1834, he gathered the people to 
hear the first sermon preached west of the 
Eocky Mountains. 

And what a gathering that was ! Indians, 
half-breeds, French, Americans ! There were 
many who could not understand the words of 
the preacher as he spoke on the text, 
^* Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or 
whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. " 
But they were impressed by the earnestness 
of the speaker, and were proud to listen to 
the tall, strong, pleasant-faced man who had 
come on such an astonishing errand. 

The day was not far distant when they 
would be able to understand the words as 



/r/^. — 



o 






1 





♦^---r 









<— •— ^'»^-» * -^^/"-^ . 



^. 



"/--/ 



"17 



.. . /y^ 



^ 



/>^ 






k 




I'ACiK F'ROM JASON I-KK S DIARY 



Jason Lee Volunteers 57 

well as the face of Lee. Li writing the 
record of that day's deeds, the pioneer ex- 
pressed his longing, **0 that I could address 
the Indians in their own language/' The 
longing was so great that he learned the lan- 
guage in a very short time. Again he wrote : 
**My ardent soul longs to be sounding salva- 
tion in the ears of these red men. I trust I 
shall yet see many of them rejoicing in the 
hope of the glory of God. Lord, hasten the 
hour, and thou shalt have all the praise. ' ' 

The first sermon on the Pacific slope was 
almost immediately followed by the first fune- 
ral. Three of the lawless hunters while horse- 
racing, crashed together, and one was killed. 
Then the Indians — ^if they could have under- 
stood — ^would have heard that death is not the 
end of life, but that there is an eternal life of 
joy to come, for those who love the Lord. 
Soon this truth was to be known to the In- 
dians, and many of them, rejoicing to hear 
the word, would start on the road that leads 
to life. 

Lee was tempted to stop and begin work 
among the Nez Perces. But he pushed on for 
two hundred and fifty miles down the Co- 
lumbia to the fort of the Hudson Bay Com- 



58 Winning the Oregon Country 

pany at Vancouver. The voyage was made 
on the Company's barges, now along the quiet 
stretches of the stream, again by portages 
around the dangerous rapids where sudden 
death claimed many a trapper, and even 
many of the Indians who all their lives had 
been accustomed to the treacherous waters. 
But God was with the missionaries, and he 
brought them safely through the dangers of 
the river. On September 17, 1834, they 
reached the end of their five months' journey, 
and stood before the fort at Vancouver. They 
were cordially welcomed by Dr. McLoughlin, 
in charge of the fort, who refused to accept 
payment for the passage down the river. 

Now that Lee had reached the country in 
which his life was to be spent, he was still at 
sea as to the location of his mission. "Where 
should he go 1 Everywhere were Indians who 
needed the gospel. * ^ Eastward were the large 
nomadic tribes of the interior, inhabiting a 
beautiful country and enjoying a delightful 
climate. Northward the tribes of Puget 
Sound were located, dwelling on the Cowlitz 
and Nisqually plains, and girding all the bor- 
ders of that inland sea with their camp-fires. 
Southward were the tribes of the Willamette. 



Jason Lee Volunteees 59 

The latter were the most accessible. Their 
home was not far from the great Columbia, 
the port to which all vessels visiting the great 
northwest coast turned their prows/ ^ It 
would be pleasant to be where he would have 
a chance to see all visitors to the country, and 
it would make life easier if he should settle 
down near the Hudson Bay fort. But he won- 
dered if he could do his best work among In- 
dians who were brought into frequent touch 
with white men from the sea and from the 
forts. He must put aside his own personal 
preference, and choose his location with the 
sole thought. How can I be of greatest use? 

That motive led him to decide on a spot 
called French Prairie, on the Willamette, 
near a colony of Canadian Frenchmen and 
other old servants of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany. This was in the heart of some of the 
most beautiful country in Oregon, near the 
site later chosen for the capital of the state. 
Far-sighted Lee felt that this was the stra- 
tegic place in the entire region. 

Dr. McLoughlin, who was in command of 
the Hudson Bay Company at Vancouver, 
urged the location, because he felt that here 
there would be opportunity to collect the In- 



60 Winning the Oregon Country 

dians around him, teach them to cultivate the 
ground, and teach them religion at the same 
time. Dr. McLoughlin later got into trouble 
with the Company for the help he gave the 
missionaries — for the Company did not wish 
to have missionaries in the country — ^but Dr. 
McLoughlin insisted on doing what he felt 
was right. 

On the arrival of the vessel in which sup- 
plies for the mission had been sent to Oregon 
by sea, the missionaries set out from Fort 
Vancouver to their new home, in boats lent 
by Dr. McLoughlin. At once on reaching the 
spot fixed upon, sixty miles from the mouth 
of the Willamette, they hastily put up tents 
which were to be occupied while the first 
building was being erected. This was a log 
house, 32 by 18 feet. All about there were 
forests of oak, fir, cotton-wood, and maple, so 
that material was not lacking. 

But Lee could not wait till the building was 
completed before beginning his work. He 
told the Lidians that he wanted the children 
to come to school. One by one the shy boys 
and girls came to him, and he began to teach 
them before the roof was on the house. 

How the fathers and mothers must have 



Jason Lee Volunteers 61 

watched the school from the edge of the for- 
est ! And what a strange school it must have 
been, where the teacher did not know the lan- 
guage of his pupils, and where the pupils 
chattered like magi^ies as they listened to 
their teacher's attempts to make them under- 
stand ! 

Thus the missionary came to the Indians 
of the Willamette. These were not Nez 
Perces, however ; the Nez Perces were to wait 
yet a little while for the fulfilment of their 
dream.^ 

Stop to think how the first missionaries 
came to the northwest coast. The sea-otter *s 
rich skin brought explorers and traders. 
Most of these men were too keen in their 
search after wealth for themselves or to show 
others the way to wealth, to give a thought to 
the welfare of the Indians, but there were a 
few who told some of them just enough of the 
white man's God to make them want to know 



1 < < 



This vras not only the introduction of Protestant mis- 
sions into Oregon, but of civilization among the natives. 
Mining in the Northwest dates from that time. The policy 
of using the northern half of this continent for fur and 
peltry, after prevailing with marvelous exelusiveness, energy, 
and severity for a century and a half, was finally broken." — 
Barrows, Oregon: The Struggle for Possession, 117. 



62 Winning the Oregon Country 

more. When no one came to lell them, the 
Indians took their long journey in search of 
some one who would come to them. Their 
journey led to the coming of Jason Lee and 
his company, and of other companies that 
followed. 



^ 



MARCUS WHITMAN ENLISTS 



CHAPTER IV 

MARCUS WHITMAN ENLISTS 

Whitman's perseverance demonstrated a great fact — the 
practicability of a wagon road over the Eocky Mountains. 
— Geay. 

'^Well, well, if there ain't Marcus Whit- 
man!" 

The words were spoken during the sing- 
ing of the opening hymn at a church service 
in Eushville, New York, on a Sunday morn- 
ing in November, 1835. The staid worship- 
ers were not accustomed to such interrup- 
tions in meeting, least of all from such an 
earnest member as Mrs. Whitman. But when 
they looked up to see her son Marcus walk- 
ing up the aisle, followed by two Indian boys, 
they did not blame her. With difficulty they 
restrained themselves from rushing to wel- 
come the traveler and his companions. 

That must have seemed a long service to 
everybody present, including the minister. 
Perhaps for once, he shortened his sermon 
that he might listen with the rest to the tale 
of the wanderers from the West. 

65 



66 Winning the Oregon Country 

For Marcus Whitman had been West.^ 
This much the people knew. Six months be- 
fore he had set out for the Oregon Country, 
in company with the Rev. Samuel Parker, re- 
solved to learn for himself if there was any; 
truth in the tales of the Indians' desire for 
the gospel, and the presence in St. Louis of 
the Nez Perce chiefs. Though they began 
their journey months after the arrival of 
Jason Lee and his party at their station on 
the banks of the Willamette, no news of 
these pioneers had been received by their 
friends in the East — the day of fast mail 
trains over the mountains was not to come 
for more than a generation. 

Dr. Parker had tried to be on the ground 
as soon as Jason Lee. Li the spring of 1834 
he had reached Independence, Missouri, but 
too late to join the fur traders on their an- 
nual trip to Oregon. So he had returned 
home, only to make a second start a year 
later. It was then that Marcus Whitman 
went with him. 

* In his first journey toward the Oregon Conntry, he k%l 
gone just beyond the continental divide, in the Boeky 
Moontains, had there met a large number of the IndianS| 
and among them some of the Nez Perces, and had then r»- 
tHmed East to complete plans for starting the miaaioa. 



Makcus Whitman Enlists 6T 

And now, after months of silence, he had! 
returned. Dinner was late in scores of Kush- 
ville homes that Sunday. At the close of serv- 
ice everybody crowded about young Marcus 
and his Indian friends. Men and women 
asked eager questions. Boys and girls gazed 
in awe at the Indians. But when Marcus be- 
gan to speak they forgot the Indians in their 
wonder at the traveler's tale. Their eyes 
danced. They pushed forward as far as they 
dared, fearful of losing a single word of what 
sounded like a chapter out of Cooper's Spy. 

In imagination they followed the wan- 
derers to the Missouri River country. They 
saw the company of rough traders, just ready 
to start on their long search for furs. They 
followed them as they passed the prairie-dog 
towns and the great herds of buffalo and the 
lurking Indians. They held their breath as 
they were told of narrow escapes from death 
while fording swollen streams, or while hunt- 
ing, or while lost in the mountains. They 
gasped as they heard of the two thousand 
Indians who met the traders on Green River 
in what is now southwestern Wyoming. 
They breathed more freely when they learned 
that these Indians were not on the war-path, 



68 Winning the Oregon Country 

but were only waiting to trade their furs for 
blankets and guns and beads— and whisky. 
They were glad when Marcus told them that 
among these savages were Indians from Ore- 
gon who, when they learned that there were 
among the traders men bringing the white 
man's Book of Heaven, lost interest in trad- 
ing and danced for joy. One of the men was 
Ish-hol-hol-hoats-hoats (that is, **Lawyer"; 
so called because he was such a good speaker) 
who was in the party that had met Jason Lee 
near this very spot two years before. This 
man pleaded : 

''Won't you come to us? We are waiting 
—we have waited long— and no one comes. 
Eight moons ago men came here, and we 
asked them to stop with us. But they passed 
on, and we know not where they have gone. 
Won't you come to us?" 

So it was really true that the Indians were 
pleading for the gospel! Christians in the 
East must know this. Marcus Whitman de- 
cided to go back at once to tell the news, and 
lead to Oregon other workers. Dr. Parker 
was to stay and look for the best place for a 
mission. Two strong Indian boys, about 
eighteen years old, were persuaded to go 



Marcus Whitman Enlists 69 

with Whitman to the East, and show him the 
way to their tribe the next year. Their 
names were I-tes and Tae-i-tu-i-tas ; Whitman 
called them John and Eichard. The Indians 
wanted to be sure that the missionary would 
find his way back to them. 

The return to the Missouri with the traders 
was much like the trip west, except for the 
fact that Whitman had his Indian com- 
panions, whom he taught to speak English. 
Then, too, there was cholera in camp. For- 
tunately Whitman was a physician. By hard 
work he succeeded in saving the lives of his 
fellow travelers. They were so grateful to 
him that they begged him to join them in the 
spring of 1836, when they were ready to go 
back to the Rocky Mountain region. 

I-tes and Tac-i-tu-i-tas were sent to school 
while Dr. Wliitman made his arrangements 
for the next year's trip. A letter from Dr. 
Parker told enthusiastically of his journey 
through the Oregon Country, and gave many 
words of good advice. But the advice he was 
most urgent in giving was, ** Bring a good 
wife with you." 

Narcissa Prentiss had promised Marcus 
Whitman that she would some day be his 



70 Winning the Oregon Country 

wife, but he hesitated to ask her to take the 
long journey to Oregon. He told her his 
reasons. The way was long and rough. 
There were no railroads — it was only six 
years since the building of the first railroad 
in the East. Where they were going they 
would have to use canoes or horses; many 
times they would have to walk. Indians 
would be all about them — and Indians who 
had learned to dread the white man might 
prove dangerous neighbors. 

Narcissa Prentiss laughed at the fears of 
her lover, and said she would go with him, of 
course. 

But she would be lonely if there was not 
another woman in the party, so the marriage 
was postponed till Dr. Whitman could find a 
husband and wife willing to go with them. 
For a while his search was in vain. Then he 
heard of Dr. H. H. Spalding and his young 
bride, who were about to go as missionaries 
to the Osage Indians, on their reservation in 
Northern New York. He tried to reach the 
young people, but learned that they had al- 
ready started for their new home. Whitman 
jumped into his sleigh and started after them. 
After a long pursuit he came up with them, 



Makcus Whitman Enlists 71 

during a blinding snow-storm. There was no 
time for a lengthy introduction, so he 
shouted : 

^'Ship ahoy! You are wanted for Ore- 
gon ! ^ ' 

The surprised travelers stopped. 

Dr. Spalding called: 

**What do you wantT' 

**It is too cold to explain here,'* Dr. Whit- 
man answered. ** Drive back with me to the 
inn at Howard, and I'll tell you the whole 
story." 

Soon the three people were seated before 
the blazing fire in the inn. A hundred ques- 
tions were asked and answered. The story 
of the Nez Perces ' hunger for the gospel was 
told, and a brief account of the exploring 
trip made by Whitman and Parker the year 
before was given. 

**I have promised to go back this spring," 
Whitman continued. ^^I am to be married as 
soon as I return home. Then we are to go 
out to Missouri where we are to join the fur 
traders till we are met by the Nez Perces, who 
will show us the way to our new home. We '11 
live on buffalo and venison, we'll travel on 
horseback, and we'll spend the nights in tents 



72 Winning the Obegon Country 

or rolled in our blankets on the ground. Will 
you go with us?'' 

Mr. Spalding wanted to say yes, but he 
feared for his wife 's health. She had recently 
recovered from a long sickness. So he said 
to her: 

*^It is not your duty to go; your health 
forbids. But it shall be left to you after we 
have prayed together.'' 

After all had prayed, Mrs. Spalding went 
otf by herself to decide the question of her 
duty. Ten minutes later she returned, her 
face shining, and said : 

^ ^ I have made up my mind for Oregon. ' ' 

Her husband asked her if she understood 
what her decision involved. He reminded her 
of the perils of the three thousand mile jour- 
ney, and the loneliness of the far-away home. 
But she was firm. Her only answer was in 
the words used by Paul when friends tried 
to keep him back from Kome : 

^^What mean ye to weep and to break mine 
heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, 
but also to die [on the Eocky Mountains] 
for the name of the Lord Jesus." 

Now there was nothing more needed but the 
wedding of Marcus Whitman and Narcissa 



Marcus Whitman Enlists 73 

Prentiss. From far and near guests came to 
see the missionaries take their vows, but there 
were no more honored guests than I-tes and 
Tac-i-tu-i-tas, the Nez Perce boys who were 
filled with joy when they learned that the 
bride was to go back with them to their home. 
Then began one of the strangest wedding 
journeys ever taken — ^by rivers, across plains 
and over mountains to the mysterious land 

"Where rolls the Oregon." 

All went well till the Missouri River was 
reached at the point where the fur traders 
who had invited the missionaries to join them 
said they would wait. But when the ap- 
pointed time for the traders ' departure came, 
they started at once — four days before the 
arrival of the missionaries. 

Dr. Spalding said they must not think of 
going on alone ; they must return home. ^ ' The 
silent Whitman," as he was called, said only, 
'*We will go on." Brave Mrs. Spalding car- 
ried the day by her determined words: 

^^I have started for Oregon, and to Oregon 
I will go, or leave my body on the plains." 

So the missionary party hurried on their 
way alone, hoping to overtake the fur traders 
within a week or ten days. But it proved to 



74 Winning the Oregon Country 

be a month. During this time Mrs. Spalding 
and Mrs. Whitman were the life of the com- 
pany, encouraging the men when obstacles 
hindered them, and spurring them on when 
Mr. Spalding was tempted to say, ^^ Let's go 
back.'* He didn't say this very often — but 
when he was *^ kicked by a mule, shaken by 
the ague, stripped by a tornado, not only of 
his tent but his blankets, and crowded ©if the 
ferry-boat by an awkward, uncivilized fron- 
tier cow,'' it is not strange that he was dis- 
couraged. 

Dr. Whitman had provided a spring wagon 
for the two brides, but Mrs. Whitman pre- 
ferred to ride on horseback by the side of her 
husband, leaving the wagon to Mrs. Spalding, 
who was not yet strong. On other horses 
rode the husbands, and Mr. W. H. Gray, who 
was to be the business agent of the mission 
station. Following these came two teamsters, 
in charge of the wagons bearing the supplies. 
Then there were the two Indian boys, who felt 
quite lonely till a third Indian boy joined 
them. How many things the boys who had 
been to New York could tell their stay-at- 
home friend! Mrs. Whitman wrote in her 
diary, **When the boys get together they 



Marcus Whitman Enlists 75 

make a great chattering/' The three boys 
proved quite helpful, for ^Hhey could swim 
the rivers like ducks; they took all the care 
of the loose stock, and were wise in the ways 
of the plains, and they could explain to any 
suspicious Indian the coming of the great 
medicine-men they were taking to their 
people.** 

The fur traders* caravan was overtaken on 
Loupe Fork. In the united party there were 
more than two hundred men to oppose hos- 
tile Indians. The attention of many of these 
had to be given to the six hundred animals 
taken along for food. The animals tempted 
the Indians, and it was necessary each night 
to camp with the stock in the center, around 
this the tents and wagons, and about the 
whole encampment a company of vigilant 
sentinels. 

The experienced plainsmen shook their 
heads when they saw the wagons, and said 
it would be impossible to take them across 
the mountains. But Dr. Whitman insisted 
that they must go. He was not thinking 
merely of the comfort of those who would 
use them, but more of the great importance 
of proving to the world that a wagon could 



76 AViNNING THE OrEGON CoUNTRY 

be taken to Oregon. He was looking for- 
ward to the day when there would be in that 
country more white people than Indians, to 
be taught of God. Yet men and women would 
be prevented from making the journey by 
the statement that it was impossible to colo- 
nize Oregon by wagons. An English editor 
had said that American wagons could not go 
to the Columbia River, and Americans were 
believing him. It was Dr. Whitman's pur- 
pose to show the doubters that they were 
wrong. So he carried a wagon through with 
him to the Pacific slope, and thus he did what 
has been called one of the most important 
things for the whole future of Oregon. 

The traders shrugged their shoulders when 
*Hhe silent Whitman'' said the wagon must 
go along. They said, **I told you so," 
when one night, in a bit of rough country, he 
fell behind with his beloved wagon, and came 
into camp **late, warm, puffing, and cheery, 
too, for he had had only one upset." 

The Indians were much interested in the 
first wheeled vehicle they had ever seen. 
**They put into jerky syllables the sounds it 
made as it rose and fell and stopped in the 
soft grass and among the rocks, and called it 




MARCUS WHITMAN- 



Marcus Whitman Enlists 77 

^Chick-cMck-shan-i-le-Jcai^kash/ '' Do not 
those syllables remind you of the creaking 
of a wagon ! 

Through canyons, along creek beds, up 
rocky precipices, the wagon was pushed and 
hauled. Many times it was overturned, but 
still the Doctor would not listen to those who 
urged him to abandon it. At last, when the 
way became too rough for four wheels, he 
made the wagon into a cart, added the extra 
wheels to the load, and pushed on. He was 
compelled to leave the cart at Fort Boise, 
and it probably remained there.^ 

Dr. Whitman had triumphed, and those 
who said colonists could never go to the Ore- 
gon Country were effectively answered. 

**The work was done, substantially. The 
wagon and the two brides, Mrs. Whitman and 
Mrs. Spalding, had won Oregon. The first 
wheels had marked the prairie and brushed 
the sage, and grazed the rocks, and cut the 
river banks all the way from the Missouri to 
the Columbia.2 How many ten thousands have 
since been on the trail with their long lines 



* Eells, Marcus Whitman, 4:4:. 

^The Boise and Snake Elvers form one of the principal 
parts of the Columbia Eiver system. 



78 Winning the Oregon Country j 

of white-topped canvas teams! The first 
white woman had crossed the continent, and 
not only witnessed but achieved the victory. 
. . . Oregon is already practically won. In 
going through, Whitman's wagon had dem- 
onstrated that women and children and house- 
hold goods — the family — could be carried 
over the plains and mountains to Oregon. ' ' ^ 

For many weeks of their journey the trav- 
elers had an abundance of food. In the buf- 
falo country, where a single herd sometimes 
covered a thousand acree, the hunters could 
slaughter the noble animals at will. 

In anticipation of later days when game 
would be scarce, the caravan paused to 
**jerk" or dry the buffalo meat. The jerked 
meat did not seem very appetizing, so long 
as fresh, juicy buffalo steaks were to be had, 
but when the herds vanished, all were glad 
to use it. Yet how they longed for a little 
bread to go with it! Once Mrs. Whit- 
man wrote, **0 for a few crusts of mother's 
bread; girls, don't waste the bread in the old 
home. ' ' 

**That is the nearest to a complaint the 
brave woman came during all the trying 

^ Barrows, Oregon : the Struggle for Possession, 146. 



Marcus Whitman Enlists 79 

journey, in spite of scorching sun, the clouds 
of alkaline dust that stung the eye and throat, 
the impure water they were compelled to use, 
the myriads of mosquitoes and buffalo 
gnats. '^ 

When, on July 4, 1836, the missionaries 
were at last over the crest of the Rockies, 
twenty-five hundred miles from home, they 
paused, spread their blankets, unfurled the 
American flag, and knelt in thankful prayer 
to dedicate to God the Oregon Country. 
With what astonishment the three Indian 
boys must have beheld the scene! The act 
meant more than the missionaries ever knew. 
One historian of Oregon says that it went far 
toward giving to the United States six thou- 
sand miles of Pacific coast. 

After this notable Fourth of July celebra- 
tion, the march was resumed. Word of the 
advance of the caravan was taken by Indian 
scouts to a party of trappers and Indians 
who were encamped on the banks of the 
Green River. ^*This exhilarating news im- 
mediately inspired some of the trappers, 
foremost among whom was Meek, with a de- 
sire to be the first to meet and greet the on- 
coming caravan and especially to salute the 



80 Winning the Oregon Country 

two white women who were bold enough to 
invade a mountain camp. In a very short 
time Meek, with half-a-dozen comrades, and 
ten or a dozen Nez Perces, were mounted and 
away on their self-imposed errand of wel- 
come; the trappers because they were * spoil- 
ing' for a fresh excitement; and the Nez 
Perces because the missionaries were bring- 
ing them information concerning the power- 
ful and beneficent Deity of the white men. 

**0n the Sweetwater, about two days' 
travel from camp, the caravan of the ad- 
vancing company was discovered, and the 
trappers prepared to give them a character- 
istic greeting. To prevent mistakes in recog- 
nizing them, a white flag was hoisted on one 
of their guns, and the word was given to 
start. Then over the brow of a hill they 
made their appearance, riding with that mad 
speed only an Indian or a trapper can ride, 
yelling, whooping, darting forward with fran- 
tic and threatening gestures; their dress, 
noise, and motions all so completely savage 
that the white men could not have been dis- 
tinguished from the red. 

* ' The uninitiated travelers, believing they 
were about to be attacked by Indians, pre- 



Marcus Whitman Enlists 81 

pared for defense, nor could they be per- 
suaded that the preparation was unnecessary, 
until the guide pointed out to them the white 
flag in advance. At the assurance that the 
flag betokened friends, every movement of the 
wild brigade became fascinating. On they 
came, riding faster and faster, yelling louder 
and louder, and gesticulating more and more 
madly, until, as they met and passed the cara- 
van, they discharged their guns in one volley 
over the heads of the company; and suddenly 
wheeling rode back to the front as wildly as 
they had come. Nor could their first brief 
display content the crazy cavalcade. After 
reacliing the front, they rode back and forth, 
and around and around the caravan, which 
had returned their salute, showing off their 
feats of horsemanship, and the knowing tricks 
of their horses together; hardly stopping to 
exchange questions and answers, but seeming 
really intoxicated with delight at the meet- 
ing. AViiat strange emotions filled the breasts 
of the lady missionaries, when they beheld 
the Indians among whom their lot was to be 
cast, may now be faintly outlined by vivid 
imagination, but have never been, perhaps 
never could l^e, jmt into words! 



82 Winning the Oregon Country 

**It was towards Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. 
Spalding that the chief interest was directed ; 
an interest that was founded in the Indian 
mind upon wonder, admiration, and awe; and 
in the minds of the trappers upon the power- 
ful recollections awakened by seeing in their 
midst two refined Christian women, with the 
complexion and dress of their own mothers 
and sisters. United to this startling effect 
of memory, was respect for the religious de- 
votion which had inspired them to undertake 
the long and dangerous journey to the Eocky 
Mountains, and also a sentiment of pity for 
what they knew only too well yet remained to 
be encountered by these delicate women.'' 

Both women merited the honors they re- 
ceived. In Mrs. Whitman the trappers and 
Indians saw ^'a large, fair-skinned woman, 
with blue eyes, and light auburn, almost 
golden hair. Her manners were at once dig- 
nified and gracious. She was, both by na- 
ture and education, a lady, and had a lady's 
appreciation of all that was courteous and 
refined. ' ' i 

In Mrs. Spalding they saw one ** talented 
and refined in her nature, but less pleasing 
in exterior. She possessed the true mission- , 

i 



Mahcus Whitman Enlists 83 

ay spirit, never thinking of herself, or the 
mpression she made upon others, yet very 
inn and capable of command. 

**When the trappers and Nez Perces had 
laked their thirst for excitement by a few 
lOurs' travel in company with the Fur Com- 
)any's and missionaries' caravan, they gave 
it length a parting display of horsemanship, 
md dashed off on the return trail to carry to 
;amp the earliest news. It was on their ar- 
rival in camp that the Nez Perce and Flat- 
lead village, which had its encampment at the 
rendezvous-ground on Green River,^ began to 
nake preparations for the reception of the 
missionaries. It was then that Indian finery 
was displayed! Then the Indian women 
3ombed and braided their long black hair, ty- 
ing the plaits with gay-colored ribbons, and 
the Indian braves tied anew their streaming 
scalp-locks, sticking them full of flaunting 
eagle's plumes, and not despising a bit of rib- 
bon, either. Paint was in demand both for 
the rider and his horse. Gay blankets, red 
and blue, buckskin fringed shirts, worked 
with beads and porcupine quills, and hand- 

* The Nez Perc^ had come about fire hundred miles from 
the region occupied hj the tribe on the Clearwater. 



S-h Winning the Oregon Country 

somely embroidered moccasins, were eagerly 
sought after. Guns were cleaned and bur- 
nished, and drums and fifes were put in 
tune. 

'^ After a day of toilsome preparation all 
was ready for the grand reception in the 
camp of the Nez Perces. Word was at length 
given that the caravan was in sight. There 
was a rush for horses, and in a few moments 
the Indians were mounted and in line, ready 
to charge on the advancing caravan. When 
the command of the chiefs was given to start, 
a simultaneous chorus of yells and whoops 
burst forth, accompanied by the deafening din 
of the war-drums, the discharge of fire-arms, 
and the clatter of the whole cavalcade, which 
was at once in a mad gallop toward the on- 
coming train. Nor did the yelling, whooping, 
drumming, and firing cease until within a few 
yards of the train. ' ' ^ 

Then came the formal greeting of the mis- 
sionaries. They were welcomed to the best 
in the camp. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spald- 
'ing soon won all hearts. 

The Indians were not alone in their 
joy. Hardy frontiersmen, who had not seen 

^ Mrs. F. F. Victor, The Bivcr of the West, 202—206. 



Makcus Whitman Enlists 85 

a white woman for years, looked reverently 
on the faces of the two brides. Years later 
3ne of them said, ^^From that day when I 
took again the hand of a civilized woman, I 
was a better man." And a trapper said, 
•^ There is something the royal Hudson Bay 
Company and its masters can't drive out of 
Oregon.'* He knew that the coming of the 
;wo women meant the dawn of civilization. 

Here Dr. Whitman received his first mail 
— a letter from Dr. Parker telling of his suc- 
cessful exploration, his advice to found mis- 
sions among the Nez Perces and the Cayuse, 
and his intention to go home by way of the 
Sandwich Islands to arrange for reenforce- 
ments for the missionaries who were for a 
time to hold the fort by themselves. 
I The Nez Perces were loath to see their new 
friends go on to the Pacific, but Marcus Whit- 
man thought it best to have a talk with Dr. 
McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver. One old 
chief, when he saw that they were determined 
to go, decided to go with them, though his 
absence from home just at this time meant his 
doing without his winter's supply of buffalo 
meat. 

Pausing only at Fort Walla Walla — where 



86 Winning the Oregon Country 



Mrs. Whitman rejoiced in a meal of fresh 
salmon, potatoes, tea, bread, and butter, and 
in the sound of a rooster's crow — the mis- 
sionaries pushed on to Vancouver, arriving 
there September 12, 1836, almost two yean 
after the coming of Jason Lee. 

The great-hearted Dr. McLoughlin wel- 
comed these travelers as he had welcome< 
their predecessors, persuaded the women t( 
remain at the fort while their husbands weni 
back to find locations and build houses, an( 
freely offered to help the men in any way h( 
could. 

In a few days Dr. Whitman fixed his eyes 
on a place for his mission on the banks of th( 
Walla Walla, among the Cayuse. He caller 
the mission Wai-i-lat-pu, the Indian name fo] 
the spot. Dr. Spalding and Mr. Gfl^ay weni 
one hundred and twenty-five miles farther] 
east to Lapwai Creek, near the site of what! 
is now Lewiston, Idaho. There, among the 
Nez Perces, ground was marked off for a| 
mission. 

For three weeks the men lived in a buffalo! 
skin tent; then they moved into a log house, 
forty-eight by eighteen feet, which the eager 
Indians had helped them to build. The logs 



Maecus Whitman Enlists 87 

had to be carried from the river, three miles 
away, and it took twelve Indians to carry 
one log. But there was no lack of workers. 
One third of the new house was set aside for 
living quarters; the rest was to be school- 
room, Indian boarding-house, and church. 

Thus the appeal of the chiefs at St. Louis 
had led to the opening of three stations ; Ja- 
son Lee was on the Willamette, Whitman was 
at Wai-i-lat-pu on the Walla Walla, and 
Spalding was at Lapwai on the Clearwater. 

At last the patient Nez Perces had their 
missionaries, but they waited till their plea 
had first brought teachers to others. 



BLAZING A NEW TRAIL 



CHAPTER V 



BLAZING A NEW TEAIL 



More than in any other part of the world the missionary 
history of the Pacific Northwest was its civil history also 
for the first decade and a half after the American people 
began settlement in it. — Hines. 

There was great excitement in the teepees 
of the Indian dwellers on the Willamette 
when the boys and girls learned that they 
would be welcome at the big log teepee of 
Jason Lee and Cyrns Shepard. The parents 
did not understand exactly what was wanted 
of their children, and the children did not 
care to know. It was enough for them that 
there was to be something new in their mo- 
notonous lives, and it was enough for their 
parents that their children were to be taught 
about the white man's God. Perhaps they 
would have also the secret of the white man's 
strength, and so be able to be as great as 
were the traders who had been making slaves 
of them. 

91 



92 Winning the Oregon Country 

**Let the children go to the lodge of the 
white man/* the fathers said. ''We are too 
old to learn. We will hunt in the daytime 
while they are learning, and in the evening 
we will sit and smoke about the camp-fire, 
and they will tell us what the white men 
have told them since the rising of the sun/' 

Jason Lee understood Indian nature well. 
He felt that it would be difficult, just at 
first, to persuade the fathers and mothers 
to accept new thoughts and adopt new ways 
of life, but he was hopeful that the children 
would listen to him at once and would tell of 
their lessons at home. Perhaps, in this way, 
some of the men would be reached for a bet- 
ter life. At any rate, when the children 
should grow to be men and women, the life 
of the whole tribe might be changed. 

So it happened that in many a lodge the 
question was asked, "Are you going to the 
great teepee to see how the white men live? 
Father says I may go. Come with me. They 
can't hurt us if there are many of us.'' 

But Cyrus Shepard, one of Jason Lee's as- 
sociates, had no thought of harming their 
little dusky-faced charges, twenty-five of 
whom were soon enrolled in the school. How 



Blazing a New Trail 93 

eagerly he looked into their eyes as he 
greeted them in the morning when they took 
their seats before him! Perhaps one or two 
of these very boys and girls would be great 
in their tribes. If only he might tell them of 
Jesus so simply and winningly that they 
would become Christians, and so be ready to 
make their influence count in the best way! 

We are not told how that strange school 
opened. Perhaps there was a roll-call. The 
guttural names would sound very odd. Per- 
haps the teacher would think it was better to 
omit the calling of their names until he could 
rename his pupils John, Samuel, Joseph, 
Lucy, and Jane. ^ 

What a time teachers and pupils must have 
had understanding one another, just at first ! 
But it was not very long till they were having 
regular lessons in English and even in the ele- 
ments of science. Every day there was in- 
struction in the Bible. Intently the children 
listened to the wonderful stories of men and 
women, boys and girls, of Bible days. They 
seemed so different from the wonder tales 
which they had heard from their fathers and 
mothers ever since they were able to under- 
stand anything. Why, these tales sounded as 



94 Winning the Oregon Country 

if they really happened, and anybody could 
tell that the Indian wonder stories never hap- 
pened at all ! 

They were especially fond of such stories 
as David and Goliath or Samson, for the boys 
were dreaming of the days when they wonld 
be fighting braves, and the girls thought that 
a good fighter was the finest thing in the 
world. But Mr. Shepard told them about One 
who would help both boys and girls to fight 
a bigger battle than was ever fought by the 
greatest braves of their tribe — the battle 
against sin. They were taught to love Jesus, 
as this Helper was called. Some of them soon 
showed that they were little Christians. At 
home they told what they had learned about 
Jesus, and their fathers would gravely say: 

^^Yes, we knew that the white men would 
have good medicine to give us out of their 
Book of Heaven.'* 

Of course the children who went to school 
had to be supported, for they ate all their 
meals with the missionaries. They were 
taught to do all that they could to care for 
themselves. There was a large farm to be 
cultivated, and an active boy could be of so 
much use in planting potatoes or dropping 



Blazing a New Trail 95 

corn or raking hay. Then before the wheat 
could be made into bread, it must be taken to 
the rude mill that had been built twelve miles 
from the mission. Sometimes one of the boys 
would be trusted to ride the packhorse on 
which the wheat was carried to and from the 
mill, in saddle-bags made of elk skin which 
held a bushel and a half of grain on each side. 
During the rainy season, when it was impos- 
sible to go to the mill, wheat was boiled whole, 
and made into a sort of bread. When the 
ground was perfectly dry the horses were 
sometimes hitched to a home-made wagon 
whose wheels were sections of solid logs, 
while the axles were poles from the fir trees, 
the whole being made with the ax, the auger, 
and the shaving-knife. At first these were 
almost the only tools the missionaries had. 

The pupils in the school did not object to | 

the things they were taught, but they did 
object decidedly to doing work for the white 
men — especially the boys. *^Let the girls 
work,*' they said. **Work is for squaws, not 
men.'' But there was no sign of rebellion 
until after the death of Ken-o-teesh, a bright 
boy who entered the school in April, 1835. 
He made good progress, and his parents were 



96 Winning the Oregon Country 

pleased. But in August, when he fell sick and 
died, his brother decided that Mr. Lee and 
Mr. Shepard must be responsible; they had 
surely used some sort of bad medicine on 
Ken-o-teesh, or they had bewitched him. 
When the Indian medicine-man used magic 
over a patient, and the patient died, the medi- 
cine-man expected to be killed ; and the white 
medicine-man must be treated in the same 
way. One night the brother hid himself at 
the mission, waiting to pounce on the unsus- 
pecting missionaries when they should pass 
his retreat. His knife was sharp, and his 
heart was full of hate, as he thought with 
glee of the death of the two men. 

But God protected them. One of the com- 
panions of the would-be assassin who had 
heard him boast of his purpose succeeded in 
keeping the missionaries out of the way of 
danger. Still, the boy had worked himself 
into such a fury that his thirst for blood had 
to be satisfied; so he went out and slew two 
Indians who were as innocent of wrong-doing 
as the missionaries. 

At another time the work of the mission 
was hindered by We-lap-tu-lekt, one of the 
Cayuse Indians who had guided Jason Lee 



Blazing a Xew Trail 97 

when he entered Oregon in 1834. Soon after 
the school was opened We-lap-tu-lekt brought 
two of his sons to be educated there, and 
stayed near them for a little while. What he 
saw of the school pleased him so much that 
he soon moved his family from a distance, 
that all the children might have the advan- 
tages offered by the school. For a time all 
went well. Then two of the children fell sick 
and died, while a third was not expected to 
recover. We-lap-tu-lekt felt that the gods 
must be angry because he had sent his chil- 
dren to the white men^s school. Taking his 
family he fled for his life back to his old 
home, wailing as he went that the school 
of the missionaries was a house of death. 
When, on the way, the sick child died, his 
cries were redoubled, and far and near was 
heard his warning to avoid the death-dealir^ l|) 

school. 

It was not long till the Indians for two 
hundred miles around heard the story, as it 
was circulated from one tribe to another. 
Many believed the words of the bereaved 
father, and refused to send their children to 
the mission on the Willamette. Others who 
had children in the school sent for them to 



98 Winning the Oregon Country 

come away in haste from the evil influence 
of the white men's medicine. 

The explanation of the death of the chil- 
dren was simple. The plowing of the prairie 
soil that had never before been disturbed re- 
leased the germs of malaria, and the children, 
being the weakest, were the easiest victims. 
But the Indians were unable to understand 
any such reason as this. Even if they had 
understood, they would have said that until 
white men came the soil had not been dis- 
turbed. If they would only leave, the death- 
dealing fever also would leave. In their fear 
of death the Indians forgot their longing for 
the knowledge of the Book of Heaven which 
would take away the fear of death ! 

In spite of all these things the missionaries 
were able to persuade many of the parents to 
keep their children in the school, and for 
several years it was a busy place. But there 
was other work to do than teach the children 
and run a farm for their support. Their 
fathers must be taught to labor with their 
hands ; they must learn to make a living from 
the soil as well as from the chase. As hunt- 
ers they roamed here and there over the coun- 
try, wherever the game led them. As tillers 



Blazing a New Trail 99 

of the soil they would be kept in one place, 
they would gradually become civilized, and 
they would be where they could hear the gos- 
pel not only once in a while, but whenever 
there was a preaching service. 

Although Mr. Lee was so busy with other 
things that he had little time for manual 
labor, he understood that if he expected any 
one to listen to what he said about the neces- 
sity of tilling the gi'ound he must set an ex- 
ample of industry. Day after day he guided 
the plow around the prairie, drove the oxen in 
the rough cart which he himself had made, or 
hewed the beams required for the addition 
to the mission property made necessary by 
its gradual growth. Slowly — very, very 
slowly indeed — others were led to follow his 
example, till in several places near the mis- 
sion were little patches of garden. But it 
must be confessed that too often the men com- 
pelled the squaws to do their work, while they 
sat near smoking their pipes ! 

The hard-working missionaries found it 
difficult to think of carrying on a successful 
farm without cattle. Yet there were no cattle 
to be had. The Hudson Bay Company would 
often lend a cow or a voke of oxen to a resi- 



100 Winning the Oregon Country 

(lent in the valley, but it was not the policy to 
sell the animals. No exception was made to 
this rule in favor of the missionaries, al- 
though some of the officers of the company 
were much pleased with the results of the mis- 
sionaries ' work among the Company's serv- 
ants. Their satisfaction early found exjDres- 
sion in the gift of one hundred and fifty dol- 
lars for the work of the mission, collected by 
the men at the fort, and forwarded to Mr. Lee 
by Dr. McLoughlin. 

; But Jason Lee was determined to have 
what money would not buy in the Oregon 
Country. He must have cattle, and since 
cattle were not to be had near home he pro- 
posed to go to California after them. To-day 
it would be an easy matter to go six hundred 
miles on a cattle-buying expedition, but in 
those days and in that place such a trip was 
no holiday affair. When the settlers were 
told of the purpose to bring cattle from Cali- 
fornia, they were eager to enlist in the enter- 
prise, but they did not see how the animals 
could be secured. Mr. Lee proposed the or- 
ganization of a stock company to buy six hun- 
dred head of cattle and bring them from the 
California valleys. Many of the settlers sub- 



Blazing a New Trail 101 

scribed and paid for their stock by joining 
the expedition and driving the cattle home. 

The expedition, under the lead of Ewing 
Young, once a resident of California, was 
preparing to march overland when Lieuten- 
ant Slacum — who had come to the Columbia 
in command of the United States ship Loriot 
— offered to take the cattle-buyers to Cali- 
fornia. Thence their journey to the Mexican 
ranchers of southern California was com- 
paratively easy. As the Mexicans raised the 
cattle chiefly for their hides, selling these to 
the captains of trading vessels from the At- 
lantic — as described in Eichard H. Dana's 
Two Tears Before the Mast — the prices 
asked for the animals were only a little more 
than the value of the hides. This was favor- 
able for the purchasers, so eight hundred 
head of cattle were bought at three dollars 
each and forty horses at twelve dollars each. 

Then came the hard part of the contract. 
The great herd was to be driven six hundred 
miles, almost the entire length of California, 
under burning sun, across parched plains, 
through rushing rivers, and over the moun- 
tains to the north. No wonder many of the 
animals died on the road. Still, more than 



102 Winning the Oregon Country 

six hundred head were delivered at the con- 
clusion of the trip. 

Still another signal service was performed 
by Mr. Lee for the settlers and the Indians in 
the early months of the mission history. Al- 
ready the Indians were falling ready victims 
to the white man^s bad whisky. Fortunately, 
they were unable to obtain it through the 
Hudson Bay Company, but some traders sold 
it to them. In 1836 two men announced that 
they would begin the manufacture of whisky 
and rum. They were erecting their stiU 
when Mr. Lee and his helpers at the mission 
urged them to give up their purpose. They 
reminded them that they were breaking the 
laws of the United States and that they were 
also breaking the laws of God by putting 
temptation in the way of the Indians. The 
promise was made that if they would give 
lip their plans, they would be repaid all 
money they had spent. The two men who had 
thought to become rich by the destruction of 
the Indians at first refused to listen to the 
pleas of the missionaries, but the later argu- 
ments proved so eif ective that they promised 
to withdraw and refused to accept a penny for 
their losses. Some have held that this sue- 



Blazing a New Trail 103 

cess meant even more to Oregon than the im- 
portation of cattle which could be owned by 
the people. 

The missionaries were always busy. There 
were, of course, vacation months when the 
school was closed, but neither Mr. Lee nor 
Mr. Shepard could afford to take a vacation. 
When there was opportunity they would go 
off among the scattered Indians of the upper 
Willamette or the Tillamook Plains. The 
journeys were far from pleasure jaunts, 
though they were taken through some of Ore- 
gon's grandest scenery. As Lee looked on the 
beauty of forest and field, of mountain and 
plain, of sea and river, he dreamed of the day 
when the entire country would be peopled by 
the children of him of whom he had come to 
tell the Indians. With sadness he realized 
that his words seemed to have little effect. 
But still he sought the distant red men, go- 
ing up and down the country till the figure of 
the tall, grave man could be recognized at 
sight. 

For two years Jason and Daniel Lee and 
Mr. Shepard were alone. Then came a wel- 
come party from the East. Instead however 
of saying, *'Now work will be easy because 



104! Winning the Oregon Country 

we have helpers at hand/' Jason Lee at once 
began to plan for an increase of work. He 
had learned of the Umpquas, two hundred 
miles to the south, and among them he 
thought that a station might with profit be 
opened. But before he would send any of his 
associates to this distant point, he resolved 
himself to take the hard journey in the depth 
of winter, when the streams were swollen and 
the narrow trails were nearly impassable. 
His investigation saved others from a use- 
less journey, for he found that it was unwise 
to open a mission there. Instead he deter- 
mined to send some of his workers to The 
Dalles of the Columbia, among the Wasco In- 
dians. Two ministers who had recently come 
from the East went to this new station in 
canoes, the trip requiring eight days. 

The coming of the reenforcements opened 
the way for further teaching by example. 
One of the chief hindrances to successful 
work among the Indians of that region, as 
well as the half-breeds and the retired serv- 
ants of the Hudson Bay Company, was the 
absence of real home ties. Marriages were 
unknown. There was no idea of the sanctity 
of the home. As yet none of the missionaries 



Blazing a 'New Trail 105 

in the party of Jason Lee had been able to 
teach what a real home was, for they had 
thought it best to begin work in the wilder- 
ness unmarried. But now Cyrus Shepard 
was to be married to one who had been wait- 
ing for his word to come out to him, and had 
made the journey to become his bride. A day 
was appointed for the marriage — Sunday, 
July 16, 1837 — a day to be remembered be- 
cause it was the time of the first wedding 
service on the Pacific Coast. 

Under the trees the people gathered, mis- 
sionaries, Indians, and settlers. *' Besides 
the five from the mission house, there was not 
another white woman within two hundred 
and fifty miles, and but two others west of 
the Eocky Mountains. The mission school of 
thirty or forty children was there. Around 
the outskirts of the little audience a fringe of 
the dusky daughters of the forest, with scar- 
let shawls about their shoulders, with beaded 
leggings and moccasins, stood or reclined. 
The Canadian Frenchmen of the settlement, 
with their Indian companions and half-breed 
children, in decent attire, occupied seats with 
the Americans." 

After a hymn and prayer, Jason Lee sur- 



106 Winning the Oregon Country 

prised the company by an address in which he 
said: 

**My Beloved Friends and Neighbors: 
More than two years have passed since God, 
in his providence, cast my lot among you. 
During this period I have addressed you 
many times and on various subjects, and I 
trust that you bear me witness this day that I 
have never, in any one instance, advised you 
to that which was wrong. I have frequently 
spoken to you, in no measured terms, upon 
the subject of the holy institution of mar- 
riage, and endeavored to impress you with 
the importance of that duty. It is an old say- 
ing and a true one that example speaks 
louder than precept, and I have long been 
convinced that if we would have others prac- 
tise what we recommend, circumstances being 
equal, we must set them the example. And 
now, my friends, I intend to give you un- 
equivocal i:)roof that I am willing in this re- 
spect at least to practise what I have so often 
commended to you.'' 

Then the Rev. Daniel Lee spoke the words 
that made his brother Jason and Miss Anna 
Maria Pittman man and wife. Everybody 
was surprised, for only these three had known 




ANNA PITT MAN LEE 



Blazing a New Trail 107 

that the marriage was to take place. Then 
the groom took his stand before Cyrus Shep- 
ard and Miss Susan Dowaing, and married 
them. 

At once the effects of the good example, 
were noticed. A French Canadian asked to 
be married to an Indian woman. Later other 
settlers and Indians decided that they must 
have God's blessing on their homes, and they 
asked one of the missionaries to marry them 
according to God's law. 

That July day was notable for two other 
observances — the first baptism and the first 
Lord's Supper in that great territory. An 
Indian youth was received into the church 
and baptized. The celebration of the Lord's 
Supper so impressed a young Quaker from 
New York State that he asked to be baptized 
just as the Indian had been baptized a little 
while before. 

For fifty years that first white convert at 
the mission on the Willamette was an earnest 
Christian and one of the leaders of his 
Church in Oregon. 

Jason Lee was a happy man that night. He 
had thought his work was unfruitful, and God 
had shown him the fruits. He had thought 



108 Winning the Oregon Country 

he was to minister only to the Indians, and 
God had shown him that his work was to be to 
the white settlers also. He had been lonely 
in his work, and God had given him a com- 
panion and a helpmate. 



THE FIRST TROPHIES 



CHAPTER VI 

THE FIRST TROPHIES 

The task was stupendous; but the missionaries knew it 
waa not impossible, and labored with exemplary courage. 

— SCHAFEE. 

Just in time for the Christmas of 1837 
Mrs. Whitman reached their new home at 
Wai-i-lat-pu. The wolves in the thickets 
srhich fringed the banks of the Walla Walla 
were howling dismal greeting, but the brave 
e^oman smiled as she saw the snug shelter 
prepared for her. 

She was too weary that night to inspect 
khe place where she was to spend a few 
lappy, busy years. She was content to wait 
!oT the revelations of the next day. She 
lid not fear these, for she knew that her 
lusband had been busy clearing land of un- 
ierbrush, and building a house. She was 
jontent to think that he had done his best. 

She had already seen enough of the pio- 

111 



112 Winning the Oregon Country 

neer life to understand that his task had not 
been easy, but she did not yet know of his 
long eight-mile trips to the nearest trees 
large enough to furnish logs for the house 
and lumber for the floors and the rough fur- 
niture. There was no sawmill then, so all 
the logs had been trimmed with the ax, and 
the boards had been sawed by hand from 
timber dragged to Wai-i-lat-pu by patient 
horses or floated down streams. 

For six weeks the five men had toiled be- 
fore they had built a house of one large room 
whose open fireplace was ready to glow with 
welcoming heat for the visitor, or, first of 
all, for the wife, without whom the house 
would never be anything more than a house. 
But when Mrs. "Whitman entered the door, the 
house became a home. 

How good the first breakfast prepared in 
that place by a woman's hands must have 
tasted, when next morning the men gathered 
about the rude table! With what joy, before 
the meal was begun, heads were bowed in 
reverent acknowledgment of God's goodness! 

After the dishes had been cleared away 
Mrs. Whitman began to look about her, at 
the furnishings of her home. There were 




From a ilrawliijj 

XARCISSA rUKN'TISS WHITMAN 

"When Mrs. Whitmnn I'litcrc*! the iloor the house became a 
lidtno ' ' 



The First Trophies 113 

*' chairs rudely made with skins stretched 
across them; table made of four posts cov- 
ered with boards sawed by hand ; stools made 
of logs sawed of proper length; pegs along 
the walls upon which to hang the clothing, 
nails being too expensive a luxury ; beds fast- 
ened to the walls, and filled with dried grass 
and leaves.'' 

Then she went to the door and looked out 
over the grounds about the cabin, and the 
river whose waters glistened in the morning 
sunlight. Her eyes filled with the happy tears 
of gratitude which found expression at once, 
as she took up the journal which had been 
her companion on the journey from New 
York, and wrote : 

** We reached our new home December 10th, 
found a house reared, and the lean-to in- 
closed, a good chimney and fireplace, and the 
floor laid, but no windows or doors, except 
blankets. My heart truly leaped for joy as 
I alighted from my horse, entered, and seated 
myself before a pleasant fire, for it was night, 
and the air chilly. 

*^ It is a lovely situation. We are on a level 
peninsula formed by the two branches of the 
Walla Walla Eiver. Our house stands on the 



114 Winning the Oregon Country 

southeast shore of the main river. To run a 
fence across, from river to river, will inclose 
three hundred acres of good land, and all un- 
der the eye. Just east of the house rises a 
range of low hills, covered with bunch-grass 
almost as rich as oats for the stock. The In- 
dians have named the place *Wai-i-lat-pu,' 
the place of the rye grass." 

The missionaries were not satisfied to tell 
in their journals of their gratitude to God. 
Morning and evening — beginning on that first 
day in the new home — it was their habit to 
gather about the family altar. Mrs. Whit- 
man's melodious voice was a great help in 
these family services. There were soon many 
unexpected listeners to her singing; the Cay- 
use would steal up to the cabin in their effort 
to catch every sound. They could not under- 
stand the words, but they could read the face 
of the *^ white squaw,'' and they loved her at 
once. 

It was impossible to keep these Indian vis- 
itors out of the house. They would enter as 
if this was their right, curiously examining 
everything that attracted their attention. It 
never occurred to Mrs. Whitman to put any- 
thing under lock and key, and her confidence 



The First Trophies 115 

n her guests was justified — nothing was ever 
jtolen. In later months and years, as addi- 
;ions were made to the cabin, the effort was 
nade to keep the Indians from the bedrooms, 
t>ut in vain; they insisted on going into all 
)f these. Slowly, however, they learned that 
VI rs. Whitman's private room was sacred. 

There was an advantage in these visits to 
:he house of the white man. The Indians saw 
:hat the white man's way of living was better 
:han their own. Their lodges looked rough 
ind uninviting as they returned from the mis- 
tjionary's quarters. This was exactly what 
Mr. and Mrs. Whitman desired. They knew 
that the Indians would wish to live better 
when once they had become dissatisfied with 
what they had. Many of the Indians were 
comparatively rich; their herds of ponies 
ranged far and near. One man owned more 
than two thousand horses. They were able to 
live more comfortably, but they wandered 
from place to place, driving the horses to 
fresh pastures, or visiting the salmon fish- 
eries, or following the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany's trappers, and they seemed to think 
that anything was good enough for a shelter 
for the brief time they remained in one spot. 



116 Winning the Oregon Country 

AVliitman set the example of industry, by 
building fences, plowing the virgin soil, 
building a house, a school, and a stable, plant- 
ing an orchard, and doing the thousand and 
one other things that only a farmer can name. 
The Indians watched him intently. A few of 
them consented to follow his example. He 
agreed to furnish seed to each man who 
would sow it, and he offered to show him how 
to prepare the land, care for the growing 
crops, and gather the harvest. Within a few 
years a score or more of the Indians were cul- 
tivating from one fourth of an acre to four 
acres of land, some had as many as seventy 
head of cattle, and some of them owned a 
few sheep. As one result, the winter popula- 
tion about the station, which had at first been 
very small, was nearly as large as the sum- 
mer population. 

There were, of course, many Indians who 
refused to work. At first they welcomed the 
teachings about prayer, for they expected 
that the white man's God, in answer to 
prayer, would give them food, blankets, guns, 
cabins, and that they would not need to work 
for these things. AAHien they realized that 
they were wrong, they were displeased with 



The First Trophies 117 

:he missionaries, and were, therefore, ready 
bo join those who, later on, made the attack. 
Because many of the older Indians weie 
slow to accept their teachings, the mission- 
iries at Wai-i-lat-pu soon learned the lesson 
)y which Jason Lee was already profiting, 
liat the hope of the mission was in the chil- 
iren. It was difiicult to influence the fathers 
jind mothers, but the boys and girls were 
I ready to listen and eager to try the things of 
jsvhich they were told. They gladly attended 
I the classes taught by Mrs. Whitman, while 
i their fathers lounged about the yard, rejoic- 
ing to think that the ''great medicine '^ of the 
white man was being given freely to mem- 
bers of their families. The sight of the idle 
Indians was too much for the energetic Whit- 
CQan. *'He tried hard to persuade them to 
lend a helping hand at work; now and then 
they would join him in some heavy lifting, 
w^hich one man could not do, but they did not 
believe that Indian men were made to work. 
Work was only for squaws.'^ 

A glimpse of the Christian Indians and of 
life at the mission is given in the story of the 
travels of Thomas Jefferson Farnham, who 
started in 1839 with a party of nineteen from 



T^ 



118 Winning the Oregon Country 

Illinois to Oregon.^ When near the Walla) 
Walla Kiver he overtook a Caynse Indian, 
who, with his wife and children, was on his 
way from the buffalo hunting-grounds to Dr. 
Whitman ^s mission, where he planned to 
spend the winter. 

At night, when seated with the Indians b; 
the camp-fire, the traveler saw something that 1 
surprised him. Before beginning the evening [ 
meal, the Indian bowed his head and prayed ! 
During the meal he frequently used the names 
God and Jesus Christ in the course of hia 
conversation with his wife. * 

While the Indians ate, the traveler fell 
asleep. A little later he was roused by the 
sound of singing. The Indians were at thei; 
evening devotions! After the hymn the f 
ther led in prayer. 

Next day Mr. Famham reached Wai-i-la 
pu. His first sight of Dr. Whitman wai 
while the missionary gave the morning direc-? 
tions to the Indians who were preparing tot 
work in the garden and in the forest. Lateoi 
in the day the school was visited. Forty oi 
fifty children, from seven to eighteen years ofi 

* Travels Across the Western Prairies, the Anahuac, audi 
Bocky Mountains, Vol. I, 329-339. 



The First Trophies 119 

age, and several older people, gathered in the 
shade outside the schoolroom, at the ringing 
of a hand-bell. Dr. Whitman nsed a black- 
board in teaching letters and the formation of 
words and sentences. 

No wonder the Cayuse^ were kind to the 
Whitmans! They were eager to bring ilie 
best they had to them. Of course Dr. Whit- 
man insisted on paying for everything. Once 
he bought ten horses, in order to have food 
enough for a company of expected guests, as 
the meat of the horse was used freely at that 
time in the Northwest. To supplement the 
supplies furnished by the Indians, the mis- 
sion land was plowed until more than two 
hundred acres were under cultivation. Then, 
to care for the wheat, a grist-mill was built 
under Dr. Whitman's direction. 

It would have been strange if the Cayuse 
had not been devoted to their teachers. Mrs. 
Whitman was an angel of mercy in their poor 
lodges, and her Imsband was never too busy 
to go among them when they were sick, 
and heal them or soothe their pain. 
** Surely,'' they thought, **the white man's 

' An Indian tribe locflted on the Walla Walla River and 

the Columbia in the region of Wai-i-lat-pu. 



120 Winning the Oregon Country 

medicine is good! We made no mistake 
when we asked them to stop with us/' 

However, the love given to the doctor and 
his wife was nothing to the affection be- 
stowed upon little Clarissa Whitman, who 
soon came to make glad the home of the mis- 
sionaries. **To the Indians she was a won- 
der and delight. Great burly savages with 
their squaws came from miles and miles 
away to look upon *the little white squaw 
baby.' They seemed to think it a great 
privilege and honor to be permitted to touch 
the soft, white cheek with a finger. The old 
chief was one of her great admirers; he 
called her Hhe little white Cayuse Queen,' 
and openly gave notice that he would make 
her the heir to all his wealth. To the sixty 
or seventy Indian children in the school, the 
baby was more interesting than their les- 
sons, and the older and more careful Indian 
girls who were permitted to nurse and care 
for little Clarissa during school hours 
were envied by all others." 

The delight of the Cayuse was boundless 
as Clarissa, when only one and a half years 
old, spoke their own tongue as well as she 
spoke English. In fact, she was more fa- 



The First Trophies 121 

miliar with Caynse than with her own lan- 
guage, because she was always with the In- 
dian children. She began to sing almost as 
soon as she began to speak. At the family 
altar she learned a number of familiar hymns, 
and these she sang all day long as she wan- 
dered in the fields or by the streams. 

One morning, when she was not yet two 
and a half years old, her father asked her, at 
the hour of family worship, what she wished 
to sing. She chose *'Rock of Ages,'' and to- 
gether the little com])any sang the words: 

"While 1 draw this lioeliiig breath, 
When ray eyelids close in death, 
When I rise to worlds unknown, 
And behold thee on thy throne, 
Rock of Ages, clelt lor me, 
Let me hi(!e myself in thee." 

Again in the afternoon, the hynm was sung. 
Many Indians were there and listened, espe- 
cially to Clarissa's clear, sweet voice. **This 
was the last we ever heard her sing," Mrs. 
Whitman, later, sadly wrote in her journal. 

After worship, Mrs. Whitman was busy 
with the supper, and lost sight of Clarissa. 
Unfortunately, not one of her little Indian 
nurses was near. She wandered off alone, 



122 Winning the Oregon Country 

and was not missed for some time. Then 
there was a frantic search, in which the In- 
dians joined. One of these took the path 
which led to the river, sixty yards from the 
house, ending at the little pier from which 
the water for family nse was dipped. The 
sight of Clarissa's little tin cnp on the plat- 
form led the Indian to fear the worst. He 
plunged into the stream, drifted with the 
current, and was carried against the body of 
the child. Eegaining the bank, he ran with 
her to the house. There it was found that 
nothing could be done for her. She was 
dead. 

For a moment the faith of the father and 
mother was shaken by the staggering blow. 
Then they went into their own room, shut 
the door, and poured out their hearts to God. 
Eising from their knees, they went about 
their work for others. Later, Mrs. Whitman 
took her pencil, and wrote: 

^^Lord, it is right, it is right! She is not 
mine, but thine ! She was only lent to me to 
comfort me for a little season, and now, dear 
Savior, Thou hast the best right to her. Thy 
will, not mine, be done.'' 

The death of Clarissa was a turning-point 



The First Trophies 123 

in the history of the mission. From that day 
the Indians began to lose confidence in the 
missionaries and their teachings. Dr. Whit- 
man and his wife labored for them more un- 
tiringly than ever, but the Cayuse were no 
longer impressed with the stories from the 
Bible. **If these things are true, why did 
the little white Cayuse Queen dieT' they 
asked one another. **If the white man^s 
medicine is any good, why couldn't they keep 
the baby from drowning? If they can't take 
care of themselves, how can they take care 
of us?" 

This was the opportunity of the Cayuse 
modicine-men. They were angry as they saw 
their influence over the people gained by the 
missionaries. Now they took advantage of 
the Indians' expression of doubt to speak 
slightingly of the power of Dr. Whitman. 
The superstitious people listened, and the 
spark of distrust was kindled. 

About the same time the Indians were dis- 
pleased because they felt that Dr. Whitman 
had interfered with their personal liberty. 
They had been accustomed to listen to his ad- 
vice, but now their hearts were bad, to use 
their own expressive term. The occasion was 



124 Winning the Oregon Country 

a raid made by the young men against a tribe 
which they claimed owed them a debt whose 
pa>Tnent had been asked and refused. In the 
raid the Ca^nise succeeded in stealing enough 
stock to pay the debt and the trouble in- 
curred in collecting it. Dr. Whitman urged 
that their method of debt collecting was not 
right. His influence was still so great that 
the Cayuse sullenly returned the stock to the 
rightful owners. But they nursed their an- 
ger against the missionaries. 

There were some who, learning how the In- 
dians were feeling, inflamed them further by 
hinting that Dr. Whitman was deceiving them 
by fine talk about helping them ; they insisted 
that his only desire was to kill all the Indians 
and seize all their possessions. The coming 
of the settlers, whom Dr. Whitman encour- 
aged, seemed to them to prove this state- 
ment. 

Dr. Whitman and his associates were 
warned of their danger, but they insisted on 
remaining where they were and continuing 
their work. 

There were still a few who came to the 
school and gathered at the station for family 
worship. In some of the lodges were fathers 



The First Trophies 125 

^ho persisted in having worship for them- 

elves and their families, in spite of the 

ineers of neighbors, who felt themselves su- 

)erior to the white man^s medicine. Many 

)f the fields which had been cultivated for a 

ime were overgrown with weeds and briars, 

mt a number of householders cared for their 

pround as usual and reaped the fruits of 

heir industry. Is-ti-kus was one of these 

aithful ones. He never forgot the lessons 

ae had been taught, but when he and all his 

people were banished to a reservation pro- 

kdded for them, he carried with him the old 

mission bell, and mounted it at the entrance 

3f his lodge. Then, every Sunday morning, 

as long as he lived, he rang out the call to 

Drayers which had been a daily sound on the 

>anks of the Walla Walla. There was little 

response to the call, but for fourteen years 

the bell was rung. 

I While Whitman's efforts for the Indians 
soomed to amount to little, he had some op- 
portunity to help the Americans. There 
were no settlers living within reach of Wai- 
i-lat-pu, as there were near Jason Lee*s sta- 
tion on the Willamette, but the route of immi- 
grants who were slowly beginning to come in 



12G Winning the Oregon Country 

over the mountains passed by the mis- 
sion oasis in the wilderness of savagery. The 
travelers were made welcome to the best the 
missionaries had. They were glad to stop 
and rest after their long, trying journey. 
Many of them were sick, but Dr. Whitman 
ministered to them so carefully and Mrs. 
Whitman nursed them so tenderly that the 
sick usually went on their way rejoicing. 
Once the death of the parents left to their 
care seven small children, the youngest of 
these only four months old. The little ones 
were adopted, and thereafter all their ex- 
penses were met out of the Doctor's meager 
funds. Later, four more orphans were taken 
into the home. The demands for food made 
by these children, as well as by the passing 
immigrants, were so great that it often be- 
came necessary to send for supplies to Dr. 
Spalding, at Lapwai, among the Nez Perces, 
one hundred and twenty-five miles away. 

Dr. Spalding was really better able than 
Dr. Whitman to respond to calls for assist- 
ance, for the work at Lapwai had prospered 
from the beginning. The school taught by 
Mrs. Spalding was a delight. The Nez 
Perce children were quick to learn. The 




H. H. SPALDING 



The First Trophies 127 

parents became so interested in their instruc- 
tion that many of them picked up the long 
tents in each of which a number of families 
lived and moved to the neighborhood of the 
mission. Then the men and women came into 
the schoolroom. What a picture they made 
as they sat on the benches built for children, 
and bent over the rude desks in the attempt 
to learn to write ! With eager interest they 
followed Mrs. Spalding as she deftly drew 
pictures on the home-made blackboard, in or- 
der to make the Bible lesson plain. Some of 
the fathers learned to read a little, and many 
of the boys and girls became quite proficient. 
However, the girls took more readily to the 
lessons in housework and in knitting and sew- 
ing and weaving. 

While Mrs. Spalding was in the schoolroom 
or the kitchen, her husband was among the 
people, out on the farm, working with his own 
hands, directing the work of others, or per- 
suading the Nez Perces to work for them- 
selves. The story is still told at Lapwai of 
a brave named Billy who won a bride who 
had been reluctant to say ^'yes'' to his suit, 
because he listened to Dr. Spalding's appeals. 
One day, when Billy's heart was sore because 



128 Winning the Oregon Country ! 

of the hard-hearted Indian maiden, he heard 
Dr. Spalding talk about the potato. **He 
explained how to plant and how to cultivate 
it. Then he pared one potato, and cut it in 
pieces. He handed Billy a raw piece on the 
point of his pocket-knife. Billy tasted it and 
pronounced it ^taats* (good). Billy's pota- 
toes and garden the next year were the talk 
of the tribe, causing the young maiden who 
had rejected his suit the year before to recon- 
sider the matter, and take him for a hus- 
band. '' 

Many improvements were made on the mis- 
sion property. A sawmill and grist-mill were 
built largely by the labor of Dr. Spalding and 
Mr. Gray. The women especially were glad 
of that grist-mill, for they were delivered 
from the slavery of the stone mortar, in 
which they had pounded the grain every day 
since being in the Western country. The mill- 
stones were of granite, three feet in diameter 
and a foot thick. They were brought forty 
miles from the quarry, on a raft! One of 
them may be seen to-day in the museum of 
the University of Idaho, at Moscow. 

What was in many respects the most won- 
derful improvement of all was the printing- 



The First Trophies 129 

press, whose product displaced the lessons 
Mrs. Spalding had been preparing by hand 
for her pupils. This press had been taken in 
1819 around Cape Horn to Honolulu, in the 
Hawaiian Islands, where it was used by mis- 
sionaries for twenty years. Then a new press 
was bought, and the island missionaries, 
learning of the prosperous Nez Perce mis- 
sion at Lapwai, determined to send their old 
press twenty-five hundred miles to the pio- 
neers in the wilderness. They knew that a 
press would be useless without a printer. So 
they sent Mr. E. O. Hall along to teach Dr. 
Spalding how to use it. From the ship the 
press was loaded on the backs of Cayuse 
ponies which were led more than four hun- 
dred miles across Oregon and over the Lap- 
wai hills. When the boxes were unstrapped 
from the ponies and opened, it was found 
that, in addition to the press, there was a 
good outfit of type and printers' furniture, 
as well as a supply of paper. 

A few weeks later, under the direction of 
Mr. Hall, the first book in the Nez Perce lan- 
guage — and the first book printed west of the 
Rocky Mountains — was completed. This was 
a little elementary primer of twenty pages, 



130 Winning the Oregon Country 

*^Tbe Young Child's Catechism." The 
Gospel according to St. Matthew followed. 
Later, a Code of Laws for the Nez Perces 
was put through the press, and many hymns 
were printed. Books were prepared in other 
languages also for use at distant stations. 
The Indians treasured the printed pages as 
cherished possessions. Years later visitors 
to the lodges of the Nez Perces found bat- 
tered copies of these early products of the 
mission press. 

That press is another relic, for which the 
reader must look when he goes to Portland, 
Oregon. It may be found carefully pre- 
served there, in the rooms of the Historical 
Society. 

The work at Lapwai under Dr. Spalding 
was far more encouraging than that at Wai- 
i-lat-pu. A missionary who visited the sta- 
tion several years after the press was set up, 
wrote that he found one hundred and fifty 
children and as many more adults in the 
school, and that there was just as much in- 
terest in religious instruction. After a serv- 
ice they would sometimes spend the night re- 
peating what they had been told. Before 
long from one thousand to two thousand peo- 



The First Trophies 131 

pie gathered to hear the gospel. The inter- 
est was so great that two thousand people 
puhlicly confessed their sins, and promised 
to serve God. 

The first converts among the Nez Perces 
were taken to Wai-i-lat-pn and welcomed to 
membership in the church which had been or- 
ganized there by the missionaries and their 
families on August 18, 1838 — ^the first church 
in the Oregon Country. 

In addition to the missionaries, the first 
members of the church were two natives of 
the Hawaiian Islands, and a French Cana- 
dian half-breed. The Cayuse looked on in 
amazement as the members of the church 
partook of the Lord's Supper. All but a few 
of them shrugged their shoulders when they 
were invited to receive baptism and sit at 
the Lord's table. Once in a while a Cayuse 
confessed Christ and joined the church, but 
there were not so many members from their 
tribe as from the Nez Perces at Lapwai. 
After some time there were twenty-two names 
on the roll, and the missionaries rejoiced. 
They had not been able to reach the hearts 
of many of the people, but they believed that 
those who had confessed Christ were sincere. 



132 Winning the Oregon Country 

The earnestness of at least one — Tim- 
othy, he was called — ^was put to the test many 
years later, when a United States army of- 
ficer was trapped by Indians on the war- 
path. The Indians were planning to massacre 
them, when Timothy guided the officer and 
his band through an unguarded place in the 
rocks and led him ninety miles to a place of 
safety. 



f' 



PERILS AND CONQUESTS 



1 



1 

i 



I 



CHAPTEE VII 



PEEILS AND CONQUESTS 



The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few. 
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he send 
forth laborers into his harvest. — Matthew ix. 37. 

The missionaries at Wai-i-lat-pu were far 
from neighbors and from many of the con- 
veniences of civilization which people of to- 
day call essentials. It was forty miles to a 
store, but as the wants at the station were 
few, not much attention was paid to the pri- 
jvation. There were no regular mails, but 
the pioneers knew how to live without let- 
ters. Of course they longed to hear from 
friends and loved ones in the East, and they 
eagerly read letters when these came by the 
annual pack-train which could be looked for 
just about the season of ripening com. After 
a while letters came with some degree of 
safety by way of the Isthmus of Panama. 
Once in a while a letter could be entrusted 

135 



136 Winning the Oregon Country ^ 

to a passing trapper or Indian carrier, but 
there was never any assurance that it would 
ever reach its destination. Mrs. Whitman's 
first letter from home reached her exactly 
two years and six months after she came to 







Ca^e/fora 



Wai-i-lat-pu. It had gone to New York, 
across the Atlantic to London, around Cape 
Horn to the Sandwich Islands, then by the 
yearly sailing vessel sent to the mouth of the 
Columbia. 
The distance from one mission station to 



Perils and Conquests 137 

another was so great that few visits could be 
made back and forth, not only because travel 
was difficult, but because the time for the 
trip could not be spared from work. Once 
a year the missionaries from several stations 
gathered at Wai-i-lat-pu for conference. 
Then the station was a jolly place. 

What good times the children would have 
with one another ! They would make friends 
impartially with the white boys and girls, 
and with their little Indian companions. One 
who visited Wai-i-lat-pu in later years has 
imagined the scene when the children were 
together : 

*^ Eliza Spalding may have carried the lit- 
tle baby on her back, tied on there in her 
mother's shawl, while Martha Jane trot- 
ted along at her side, with her Indian doll in 
a te-kash (baby board), which she passed 
over her head, the strap fixed so that the 
te-kash was high up on her back or shoul- 
ders. Playing mother by the little girls was 
just as fashionable in the log house near the 
mission station as it is elsewhere to-day. 
Henry Hart no doubt practised shooting at 
a mark with his flint arrow-heads, failing to 
shoot a bird on the wing as his little red 



138 Winning the Oregon Country 

friends could easily do; then he would turn 
his attention to the magpies, of which there 
were plenty stepping around. All together 
the children would trip down to the shore 
and in the deep, white sand, hunt arrow- 
heads. They would look with great admira- 
tion at the wise Indian children as they ca- 
pered about in the water diving and swim- 
ming across the river, the skin dress rolled 
up and carried over on the head of the swim- 
mer. Or if they jumped in, moccasins and 
all, what did that matter? Mother would 
neither whip nor scold. She would only say, 
'Es-to-es-ta wa-tu-taais' (*My child, that is 
not good')." 

When the morning set for the departure of 
the visitors was at hand, they would look 
longingly at one another, wondering how 
many months it would be till they met again. 
Once, when Mrs. Spalding and Mrs. Whit- 
man had a brief visit at Wai-i-lat-pu — the 
first in two years — it seemed impossible to 
start. The visitors had a sense of impending 
calamity. * * The Cayuse ponies were brought 
up to the house, with their plaited horse-hair 
bridles tied under the jaws and the wooden 
saddles adjusted. The pack-ponies were 



I 



Perils and Conquests 139 

piled high with provisions and tents for the 
journey.'' But Mrs. Spalding hesitated. Ob- 
serving her reluctance to go, Mrs. "Whitman 
drew her into the house, and they had prayer 
to.2:ether. Then the journey was begun. 

Mrs. Spalding's forebodings were justified. 
When the travelers came in sight of Lapwai, 
they found a deserted village. Practically all 
of the Nez Perces had gone away for a long 
hunt, taking their families with them. The 
few who remained explained that the ab- 
sentees might be back when the snow flew, 
but they might not be back for a year. 

Not much encouragement here for their re- 
turn to work! But the missionaries had 
learned to take everything philosophically, 
and they resolved to go right on with their 
tasks exactly as if nothing had happened. 
The wanderers would be back some day, and 
they must be ready to greet them with good 
cheer. The return might be in the dead of 
winter, when the Indians would probably be 
half starved because they had had a bad 
hunting season. If so, there was all the more 
need to gather in the harvests at the mission, 
that there might be bread enough for the 
hungry. 



1<10 Winning the Oregon Country 

.1 

A deserted station would not be a promis-" 
ing sight for missionary recruits who had 
just succeeded in pushing their way across 
the mountains, yet it was at this very time 
that a party of nine men and women came 
through Lapwai, ready to help wherever 
they were needed. It did not look as if they 
were needed at Lapwai, but those in charge 
had faith that there was yet work to be done 
there. Some went on to Wai-i-lat-pu. Dr. 
and Mrs. Whitman would have been glad of 
reenforcements, but they knew that other 
fields were crying out for laborers, so they 
silenced their own cry to have the strangers 
remain, and sent them on their way. Four 
of the party went to Thsi-ma-kain among the 
Spokanes. There they labored for nine years 
without a single convert. When they were 
advised to leave the field, they thought sor- 
rowfully that their work had been in vain. 
They were mistaken. Years later there was a 
great change in the life of the Spokanes. But 
none of the first missionary party were there 
to see the harvest. 

Another missionary in that little party 
went to Kamiah, sixty miles beyond Lapwai, 
where he hoped to build a station. Chief 



Perils and Conquests 141 

Ellis was found, and his permission was 
isked to build a house. *^ Build a house, but 
put up no fences and plow no land, ' ' he said, 
^uflfly. These Indians regarded the earth 
IS their mother, because all things grew 
horn, it, so they felt it was sacrilege to plow 
the soil. However, in the spring the mis- 
sionary thought that the chief was feeling 
iifferently about the plowing, and he began 
:o break a piece of ground. Almost instantly 
he Indians surrounded him. With threaten- 
ng gestures they shouted, **Go! Gol you 
nust leave.'* 

It was of no use to reason with them. 
Pausing only to make a canoe, the mission- 
iry took his wife and all his goods down the 
jwollen stream to Wai-i-lat-pu. Their health 
T^SiS so much shaken by the experience that 
;hey soon left for home by way of the Ha- 
;vaiian Islands. 

It is good to read that those who were the 
ringleaders in driving away the teachers 
;vere afterwards heartily ashamed of them- 
5elves. Twenty years later the missionary in 
charge at the station at Kamiah told the In- 
iians he had received from the banished mis- 
donary a kindly letter of inquiry, asking af- 



142 Winning the Oregon Country 

ter the welfare of those who had ruined his 
work. The old men who heard it expressed 
regret, and showed by renewed loyalty to 
their leaders that their sorrow for the past 
was real. 

The history of the Oregon mission is full 
of just such instances of the return in after 
years of bread cast on the waters. Perhaps 
the most remarkable was told of F. N. 
Grubbs, a son-in-law of Jason Lee, after a 
visit to Oregon in 1860. He knew that it had 
been Mr. Lee 's habit to carry with him books 
and papers wherever he went, and to give 
these to Indians whom he met by the way. 
If he had opportunity, he would pray with 
them. Sometimes acquaintances told him 
that this was a waste of time, but Mr. Lee 's 
only answer would be a smile. Mr. Grubbs 
was proud to think that he belonged to Mr. 
Lee's family, but he felt as others did that 
these wayside ministries of the first mission- 
ary in Oregon were rather useless. He 
changed his mind after a summer day when 
he was wrecked in a sailboat on the Colum- 
bia Elver. This is the story as he told it: 

** After hours of toil and danger we 
reached the north bank, wet and worn, and 



Perils and Conquests 143 

entered the lodge of an Indian. He was in 
feeble health. Our misfortunes seemed to 
arouse all his energies. He said he had 
heard of me, and that I was God's man; he 
was glad to see me. He then said that we 
both had one God; that he talked with that 
God every day. I asked him who told him 
of the great God he worshiped. ^The priest' 
was his reply. Immediately hurrying to the 
corner of the lodge he drew out a carefully 
folded buffalo-robe from beneath a number 
of other packages. Within this was a dressed 
deerskin, then that of a badger, then a piece 
of bright blue cloth enwrapping a small book. 
Holding it up, he exclaimed, ^This is God's 
book; the priest gave it to me.' On opening 
the book I was surprised to find it one of 
the early publications of the American Sun- 
day School Union. He evidently thought it 
the Bible, and I did nothing to destroy the 
innocent illusion. I now asked him the name 
of the priest. His prompt reply was * Jason 
Lee.' Then he told me that many years be- 
fore he heard Jason Lee talk to God, and 
he had talked to God ever since." ^ 

' Hines, Missionary History of the Great Northwest, 272- 
274. 



144 Winning the Oregon Country 

The missionaries who traveled from sta- 
tion to station had many such accidents as 
that which brought Mr. Grubbs to the lodge 
of the Indian. Sometimes these ended for- 
tunately, but often lives were lost. One of 
the saddest accidents occurred to 1838 to the 
Kev. David Leslie, with whom were Mrs. 
White and her babe — the first male child born 
in Oregon. On their way home from a brief 
visit to the mission at The Dalles, while pass- 
ing the dangerous Cascades, the canoe filled 
and capsized, and all were thrown into the 
surging waters. Mrs. White was saved by 
the Indians and Mr. Leslie, but the babe was 
drowned. I 

Several years later a large party was mak- 
ing a river journey from Wai-i-lat-pu to 
The Dalles. There were six passengers in a 
large canoe, and five Indians. One of the 
passengers was the daughter of Mr. Leslie, 
who with Mrs. White had the narrow escape 
in the Cascades. At the head of the rapids 
above the falls four of the men stepped 
ashore, preparatory to letting the canoe down 
several rods further by means of a rope 
passed about a rock. The men fell into the 
river, letting go their hold of the rope. In- 



Perils and Conquests 145 

stantly the canoe with all on board shot down 
a cataract. The nnfortimate passengers 
were never seen again. 

Daniel Lee was often in grave danger, but 
perhaps he was never nearer death than dur- 
ing a trip he made after cattle. The cattle 
were at the mission station on the Willa- 
mette, and were to be driven to The Dalles, a 
distance of one hundred and twenty-five 
miles. The way led through great forests, 
and across fearful gorges. There was no 
road — nothing but a faint Indian trail. For 
seven days Mr. Lee's party hewed a path 
through fallen trees, about thickets, and 
other heavy undergrowth. Then their food 
supply was entirely exhausted, and there was 
no sign of a way out of the forest. They had 
lost the trail. There was no game to be had. 
A horse was killed and part of the body was 
eaten for supper, while the remainder was 
dried for future use. The dried meat was 
eaten sparingly, but it was almost gone when 
an Indian village on the banks of the Clack- 
amas was reached. Here they rested, and 
were set in the right direction for home, 
where they arrived fourteen days after the 
beginning of the journey. 



146 Winning the Oregon Country 

Jason Lee, too, had a narrow escape when 
he was traveling in search of a site for a new 
mission station. He ventured among the 
Umpquas, although he was told that many- 
travelers who had preceded him had never 
returned to tell the tale. Again and again 
it looked as if he would be shot from am- 
bush. At last a Frenchman named Gonica 
insisted that he take with him as guide and 
interpreter his Indian wife, who, being a rela- 
tive of the chief of the bloodthirsty band 
Mr. Lee planned to visit, could protect him 
from harm. 

The day after leaving Gonica the destina- 
tion was reached — three villages very close 
to each other in which lived some two hun- 
dred Indians. Mr. Lee and those who were 
with him rested in a tent half a mile from 
the larger village, prepared to wait — accord- 
ing to etiquette — ^until the Indians should 
come to them. For some time not a visitor 
approached them, and some in the party be- 
came alarmed. Could this mean that they 
were to be killed? Mr. Lee decided to wait 
no longer, and sent a message to the chief, 
asking for a conference. The answer was 
promptly made — three chiefs and fifty-five 



Perils and Conquests 147 

warriors came to the missionaries, seated 
themselves in a circle, and coolly said that 
they were ready to hear what the visitors had 
to say. 

Mr. Lee replied by telling very briefly why 
he had come from his far-away home to Ore- 
gon. He told them he had heard that the In- 
dians were eager to know about the white 
man's God. It would have been far easier 
for him to stay at home, but he felt that he 
must go to those who were calling for the 
light. His friends did not want him to go. 
They had told him that he would lose his life. 
He was willing to die if he might first tell 
the Indians the things they needed to know. 
He had come to the Umpquas to tell them 
things that would help them. Did they care 
to hear? 

There was a tense silence. What would be 
the result of this speech? Would the In- 
dians act as friends had warned Mr. Lee and 
his companions they would do, and punish 
them for going among savages who made no 
secret of their enmity to the whites? They 
would soon know, for one of the chiefs was 
on his feet. They listened intently to his 
words, and this is what they heard: 



148 Winning the Oregon Country 

* * Great chief : We are very much pleased i 
with our country. We love this world, and 1 
desire to live a long while in it. We very 
much desire to become old men before we 
die. It is true we have killed many people, . 
but we have never killed any but bad people. 
Many lies have been told about us. We; 
have been called a bad people, and we are^ 
glad you have come to see us for yourselves. . 
All the white men we have seen before came ) 
to get our beavers; none ever came to in-- 
struct us. We are glad to see you. We wantt 
to throw away our bad things and become; 
good.'* 

After a brief service of prayer and praise, , 
the Indians returned to their lodges, and the^ 
missionaries went to their tents. They feared 1 
nothing. But the wife of Gonica, and two In-- 
dians who were with her, were suspicious, 
and took steps against being surprised. 
Fearing that the treacherous savages would 
steal on the missionaries while they slept, the 
three kept a large fire burning before the 
tent. Then they watched all night long.:. 
Many times they caught sight of lurking In- 
dians hiding behind trees, just beyond thee 
light cast by the fire; evidently they weree 



Perils and Conquests 149 

waiting for a good opportunity to plunder 
the camp, perhaps to kill the missionaries. 

Morning came, and the missionaries de- 
parted. The chiefs begged them to return, 
but when Mrs. Gonica told them of the night's 
experiences they felt that the task was hope- 
less, and they abandoned the idea of a mis- 
sion among the Umpquas. 

Just when Mr. Lee was feeling most dis- 
couraged because of such failures as this, a 
most notable revival began at The Dalles, 
and spread for fifty miles up and down the 
Columbia. A little while before the begin- 
ning of the revival the missionaries were arm- 
ing themselves for protection against the In- 
dians, for they feared an attack from them at 
any moment. Then some of the very men 
whom they feared most began inquiring the 
way of life. Almost at once there were so 
many inquiries that all activities at the mis- 
sion were dropped in order that the Indians 
might be taught how to come to Christ. 

An influential warrior named Boston 
sought Mr. Lee and said to him, ^'When I 
go home and lie down I think of your teach- 
ing, and I cannot sleep. I sleep little, and 
then I dream that I am in your meeting, and 



150 Winning the Oregon Country 

my heart is all the time talking over what 
you say. My heart was formerly asleep, but 
now I see that it is awake. ' ' 

One of the Indians was heard to make this 
prayer, only a little while after his conver- 
sion: 

**0 thou great God on high, we now pray 
to thee. Our fathers knew thee not, they died 
in darkness, but we have heard of thee ; now 
we see thee a little. Truly we are wretched. 
Our hearts are blind — dark as night — our 
ears are closed. Our hearts are bad, full of 
evil, nothing good. Truly we pray now to 
thee. 0, make us good. Put away our bad 
hearts. Give us thy Holy Spirit to make our 
hearts soft. make our hearts good — all 
good — always good. Now we desire thee. 
come into all our hearts — ^now come. Jesus 
Christ, thy Son, died for us. Jesus, wash 
our hearts. Behold and bless. ^' 

Finally the interest became so great that 
a great camp-meeting was held near the mis- 
sion on the Willamette. The missionaries 
took up their quarters in tents, which were 
surrounded by the teepees of the Indians; 
there were fifty of these, each accommodating 
thirty or forty people. For one week the In- 



\ 



Perils and Conquests 151 

dians remained and listened to the gospel. 
Then one hundred and fifty whites and In- 
dians were baptized and four or five hundred 
came together to receive the Holy Com- 
munion. 

Of the hundreds who confessed Christ at 
this time, scores were still living the Christian 
life ten years later. A visitor to the region 
more than fifty years after the revival found 
several who dated their belief in Christ from 
the camp-meeting on the Willamette. One of 
these was William Mackindon, who was John 
C. Fremont's trusted assistant in the peril- 
ous exploration of the Western country 
which gained for him the nickname, **The 
Pathfinder." 

The revival reached many who were stu- 
dents in the schools. Among these was the 
son of the chief of the W^alla Wallas, Peu- 
peu-mox-mox, or the Yellow Serpent. A few 
years later he gave the best sort of evidence 
of the reality of his conversion. He was at 
Sutter's Fort in California, where gold was 
later discovered. Some of the whites picked 
a quarrel with the chief's son, who refused 
to be drawn into a dispute. When he saw 
that they were determined to take his life, he 



152 Winning the Oregon Country 

asked for time to pray. While he was on his j 
knees he was shot through the heart. 

The revival spread to the white settlers. 
One after another these gave their hearts to^i 
Christ. Finally a man who was known tod 
have sworn to kill at sight one who he felt 
had wronged him, became a Christian. Thet 
man whom he had threatened heard of this, 
and he came to the meeting — perhaps to seek I- 
the man whose enemy he was. His face was - 
dark as a thundercloud. Suddenly he fell on 
his knees and began to pray. Then he rose to 
his feet. He saw his enemy. They trembled, 
then rushed into each other's arms. 

The work for the white settlers became 
more and more important as the Indians of I 
the Willamette gradually disappeared. By\ 
1842 there were so many white Christians in; 
the neighborhood of what is now Oregon City, 
Oregon, that a church was organized amongj 
them, and a building was erected — the first 1 
church building on the Pacific Coast. The 
subscription list circulated among the mem- 
bers and their friends is still preserved. The 
names written there deserve to be remem- 
bered. Twenty-six men gave eight hundred 
and fifty-seven dollars, and two others whoc 




KIKST CHUKCil ON THK PACIFIC COAST 

"Twentv-six nion gave eight hundre.l !in<l fifty-seven .lollars 



Perils and Conquests 153 

could not give subscribed five days' work. 
Tbere were heroic Christians in those days. 



JASON LEE'S DASH TO 
WASHINGTON 



1 

i 



i 



CHAPTER VIII 



JASON LEE^S DASH TO WASHINGTON 



To Jason Lee, more than to any other one, unless we ex- 
cept Dr. Marcus Whitman, must be attributed the inaugura- 
tion of that remarkable chain of cause and effect, a long 
line of sequence, by which Oregon and the Pacific Coast in 
general became American possessions, and the international 
destiny of our nation was secured. — ^Lyman. 

For years tlie rich Oregon Country be- 
longed to no nation. In 1818 an agreement 
had been made between Great Britain and 
the United States that this vast region should 
be open to both. This agreement was to last 
for ten years. In 1828 it was renewed for 
ten years longer. 

When Jason Lee reached Oregon he found 
that there were many difficulties in the way 
of missionary work which could be overcome 
if Congress would only make the valley of 
the Columbia part of the United States. The 
development of the country was delayed by 
the presence of the Hudson Bay Company. 

157 



158 Winning the Oregon Country 

Settlers were needed if the land was to be- 
come a Christian territory, bnt the coming of 
settlers wonld drive the Company from a 
profitable field. Naturally, then, the Com- 
pany opposed their coming. Something must 
be done to attract settlers and make their 
residence in the country possible. And the 
missionaries saw plainly that they were the 
men who must lead in the campaign for ac- 
tion. They did not for an instant stop to con- 
sider whether it was right that they should 
interfere in a political question, for they felt 
that the proper settlement of the political 
question was vital to the progress of the work 
to which they had dedicated their lives. 

Of course the first thing to do would be to 
remind Congress of the needs of a part of 
the continent to which the government was 
giving little heed. It would not be easy to 
persuade the lawmakers to pay attention to a 
section so far from the East that months 
were necessary before a traveler could 
reach it. 

Jason Lee saw his first chance to let Con- 
gress know how hard his associates were 
feeling when lieutenant Slacum, of the 
Loriot — ^the man who had helped get the 



Jason Lee^s Dash to Washington 159 

mission cattle from California — ^was about to 
leave the Columbia for the Atlantic coast. 
At a meeting of all the white men within 
reach of the mission station on the Willa- 
mette (most of them were missionaries) a 
petition to Congress was written, asking that 
the protection of the laws of the United 
States be extended over the Oregon Country. 
Eeady to help the struggling frontiersmen, 
Lieutenant Slacum took this with him to 
Washington, and made a report urging that 
the request of the missionaries be granted. 
The report was heard by Congress, there 
were a few expressions of surprise and inter- 
est, then the paper was filed away and for- 
gotten. 

But Jason Lee did not propose to permit 
Congress to forget Oregon. If necessary, he 
would go himself to Washington and plead 
for the territory. He had made up his mind 
that it was his duty as a Christian minister to 
secure the American occupation of Oregon, 
in order that the country whose future he saw 
with prophetic eye might be developed for 
Christ by workers who lived under American 
laws ; and when Jason Lee made up his mind 
as to his duty he was not the man to turn 



160 Winning the Oregon Country 

from it until God showed him he had made a 
mistake. Yet he was not a man who would 
act rashly. 

The journey was thoroughly considered be- 
fore it was undertaken. The counsel of his 
fellow workers was sought, and they united 
in urging him to go. When he argued that he 
ought not to leave the field, they assured him 
that the duty of the hour was to go to the 
East for the double purpose of stirring up 
Congress and arousing the Church to send 
reenforcements. He spent days in thought 
and prayer. In his journal he wrote: **I 
endeavored to persuade myself that it was 
not my duty to go, and tried to compose my 
mind to represent the circumstances and 
wants of the mission by writing. ' ^ 

He asked the advice of his wife, whom he 
had married only eight months before. She 
said: ^*I will not take it upon me to advise 
either way, and I will not put myself in the 
way of the performance of your duty. If 
you feel that it is your duty to go, go, for I 
did not marry you to hinder, but rather to 
aid you in the performance of your duty. ' ' 

When he decided that duty said ^ ' Gro 1 ' ' he 
began to make hurried preparations for the 



Jason Lee^s Dash to Washington 161 

journey whose perils lie knew by bitter ex- 
perience. 

Just before he left, a company of mission- 
aries and other American citizens gathered 
at the mission and signed a petition to Con- 
gress which had been prepared by Jason Lee 
and several of his associates. Twenty-six 
men signed — ^ten missionaries, seventeen 
other Americans, and nine French Canadi- 
ans — or three fourths of all the white male 
inhabitants of the Willamette valley. 

The petition told of the fertile soil, the vast 
timber tracts, the rich pastures, the rolling 
prairies, the plentiful streams, and the mild 
climate. It spoke of the trade possibilities 
with Asia, and the nearness of the Hawaiian 
Islands, which must soon become civilized 
and dependent on the Pacific Coast country. 
It urged that the writers wanted a Christian 
country for themselves and their children, 
but that Christian people would not come un- 
less life and property were made safe. 

No suggestion was made as to how Con- 
gress should act, but the missionaries and 
their friends made it clear that they were 
ready and anxious to be loyal citizens of the 
United States. 



162 Winning the Oregon Country 

The petition that meant so mucli to Oregon 
and Christianity in America was safely- 
stowed away in the old trunk which Jason 
Lee had brought with him from the East, 
and which was his companion on all his jour- 
neys.^ Then the journey was begun, in the 
early spring of 1838. After a dangerous 
canoe trip through the forests and the moun- 
tains, and a horseback ride of one hundred! 
and fifty miles, he came to Wai-i-lat-pu, thoj 
home of Marcus Whitman, whom he now met 
for the first time. 

What a subject an artist could find in the 
scene when the two stalwart missionaries 
stood face to face and hand in hand! The 
rough frontier dress, the six-foot form of! 
Lee, the sturdy, vigorous presence of Whit- 
man, the bronzed faces, the eyes glowing with' 
consecrated zeal and eager determination toi 
win that land for Christ — what more could ani 
artist ask? 

Three weeks were spent in conference with 
Whitman at Wai-i-lat-pu and with Whitman 
and Spalding at Lapwai. His hosts urged] 

* This trunk is still preserved, and has an honored place in 
the rooms of the Historical Society, at Portland, Oregon. 
See illustration facing this page. « 



Jason Lee's Dash to Washington 163 

Mm on in the work lie had undertaken, and 
promised him their help if help proved nec- 
essary in persuading Congress to action. 

The day of separation came. The three 
men knelt on the bank of the Clearwater and 
poured out their hearts to God for a blessing 
on him who went and those he left behind 
him. Then Jason Lee bravely set his face 
toward the rising sun. Like Paul of old, he 
went *^ bound in the spirit," not knowing the 
things that should befall him. 

A few weeks later he wrote in his journal: 

**This day I am thirty-five years old. 
Thirty-five years, and how little I have done 
to benefit mankind! . . . Let me have 
grace to improve my remaining days, be they 
many or few, to the glory of God, and I need 
have no uneasiness about it. The Judge of all 
the earth will do right.'' 

He did not know how soon his faith was to 
be put to the test. One night he was at 
prayer when a messenger came to him with 
letters from home. With trembling hand he 
opened the first letter in the package, only to 
read that his wife and their infant son were 
dead. For a moment he staggered under the 
blow. Then he thought of the words written 



164 Winning the Oregon Country 

by Ms wife and given to Mm just as he was 
leaving her : 

* ' Go, thy Savior will go with thee, 
All thy footsteps to attend; 
Though you may feel anxious for me, 
Thine and mine he will defend; 
Fear not, husband, 
God thy Father is, and Friend. 

** Though thy journey may seem dreary. 
While removed from her you love; 
Though you often may be weary, 
Look for comfort from above, 
God will bless you. 
And your journey prosperous prove/' 

At once Ms heart was at peace. The Judge 
of all the earth had done right. With faith 
stronger for the blow and his recovery from 
it, he pushed on, all the more determined to 
carry on his work because she who had urged 
him to it would never be seen more on the 
earth. 

The journey was filled with service by the 
way. He told the gospel story to a company 
of Indians. He did not understand their lan- 
guage, but the words he used were translated 
by one interpreter, who repeated them in an- 
other tongue to a second interpreter, who re- 
peated them again to the wondering Indians. 



Jason Lee^s Dash to Washington 165 

Perhaps as the words finally reached the ears 
of the audience, they bore little resemblance 
to those first spoken, but the missionary had 
done his best. 

At one camping-place Lee met a company 
of missionaries on their way to Marcus Whit- 
man at Wai-i-lat-pu. He encouraged them by 
speaking of the opportunities for work 
among the Indians, told them helpful things 
about the road they must take, and joined 
them in prayer for God's guidance and bless- 
ing. 

At Peoria, Illinois, he told a large audience 
about Oregon, and urged that families seek- 
ing a new home should consider going there. 
So convincing were his words that a company 
was organized which soon after found its way 
to the Columbia — the first company of Amer- 
ican homeseekers to cross the Eocky Moun- 
tains. One of the leaders of the party was a 
man with whom Mr. Lee talked many times, 
urging him to become a Christian. He 
laughed at all appeals, but soon after reach- 
ing Oregon he wrote that he had become a 
disciple of Jesus. From that time he was a 
zealous worker for a Christian Oregon. 

At Alton, Illinois, learning that a confer- 



166 Winning the Oregon Country 

ence of ministers was in session, he entered 
the room in company with the five Indian 
boys who were his companions on the jour- 
ney. The ministers stared in amazement for 
a moment, then they welcomed the strangers. 
Invited to speak to the company, Lee made an 
appeal for Oregon that touched many hearts 
and had its effect in bringing fresh support 
to the work. 

The Indians attracted attention every- 
where. They were manly boys, and those 
who talked with them were glad to know that'' 
far out beyond the mountains missionaries 
were teaching hundreds of their tribesmen. 
One of the boys who was given a chance to 
speak in meeting, showed not only that he 
had profited by the instruction he had re- 
ceived, but that he could teach a needed les- 
son to those who heard him. This was his 
speech : 

^ * One thing I must have put in paper, that | 
you white men no more sell Indians rum. He 
make it heself ; he must drink it heself." 

Lee's careful explanations of the needs of 
Oregon, and his appeals to the Church, em- 
phasized as these were by the object-lesson 
of the Indian boys with him, influenced many 



Jason Lee^s Dash to Washington 167 

men and women to volunteer for service in 
tlie schools and at the mission stations. Ar- 
rangements were speedily made for twenty- 
one teachers and ^ve ministers and their fam- 
ilies to accompany the traveler when he re- 
turned to the West. Eighteen boys and girls 
were to go with their parents. The ship 
Lausanne was chartered to carry these re- 
cruits around Cape Horn to the Hawaiian 
Islands and thence to the Columbia. 

In the meantime Lee sent to Senator Linn 
of Wisconsin the petition drawn up by the 
residents of the Willamette Valley. The Sen- 
ator presented it to Congress. The members 
were astonished. Had they been making a 
mistake about Oregon? Was the country 
really worth colonizing? Was there anything 
in this paper from a lot of missionaries ? 

An inquiry was sent to Lee asking for fur- 
ther information. He could only repeat what 
he had said before, emphasizing his points, 
and urging the necessity for prompt and def- 
inite action. In closing he said: 
> **You are aware that there is no law in 
that country to protect or control American 
citizens. And to whom shall we look, to 
whom can we look for the establishment of 



168 Winning the Oeegon Country 

:wiiolesome laws to regulate our infant but 
rising settlements but to tbe Congress of our 
own beloved country? The country will be 
settled, and that speedily, from some quar- 
ter, and it depends very much upon the 
speedy action of Congress what that popula- 
tion shall be, and what shall be the fate of 
the Indian tribes in that territory. It may 
be thought that Oregon is of but little im- 
portance, but, rely upon it, there is the germ 
of a great state. We are resolved to do what 
we can to benefit the country, but we throw 
ourselves upon you for protection. ' ' 

For some reason Congress was slow to act 
on the information thus given. Nothing was 
done at the time but to authorize the use of 
five thousand dollars of government funds 
toward the expenses of the company of 
American citizens Lee was planning to take 
with him when he returned to Oregon. 

The petition Lee had brought to Congress 
from the Pacific Coast and the letter he had 
written from the Atlantic Coast were filed 
away for future reference, to be brought to 
light at a later day. Then they were valua- 
ble helps in the fight for an American Ore- 
gon. 



Jason Lee^s Dash to Washington 169 

It is difficult to imderstand how Congress 
conld have been so slow to act nntil we read 
the speeches of statesmen who opposed the 
petition for Oregon. 

One senator is reported as saying : 

*^We are nearer to the remote nations of 
Europe than to Oregon.'' 

In 1825 Senator Benton made a declaration 
that was quoted in Congress as late as 1844 : 

**The ridge of the Eockies should be for- 
ever a national boundary." 

Such arguments prevailed, and no action 
was taken. But the colonists, guided by the 
missionaries, would yet compel the action of 
Congress. 



MARCUS WHITMAN'S PERILOUS 

RIDE 



CHAPTER IX 

MARCUS whitman's PEEELOUS EIDB 

I am prepared to say that to my mind there is not 
the shadow of a doubt that Dr. Whitman, by his efforts with 
President Tyler and Secretary Webster in 1843, and his 
agency during the same year in conducting an immigrant 
train from the Western frontier to the Columbia Eiver, was 
instrumental in saving a valuable portion of the West to the 
United States. — Eells, 

More than two years had passed since 
Jason Lee's return from the East, and there 
was no evidence of activity on the part of 
Congress. Marcus Whitman felt that it was 
time to make another effort to persuade the 
authorities to come to the relief of the Amer- 
icans in the Oregon Country. Canadian set- 
tlers were coming to the upper valley of the 
Columbia, three hundred and fifty miles 
away. They had been brought over the moun- 
tains by the agents of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany, who knew that the Oregon Country 
would finally be possessed by the nation that 

173 



174 Winning the Oregon Country 

first succeeded in settling it. There were al-j 
ready many Americans in the region, but it^ 
was thought that the migration from Canada! 
would give to British citizens so much powerj 
that American citizens would be compelled t( 
give up their plan to make the country their] 
own. 

The devoted Whitman was vitally inter- 
ested in the future of the country. He ha( 
come out from the East as a missionary t( 
the Indians, and he was doing his best to giv( 
the gospel to the red men. But he knew thal^ 
white men would come who would know ho^ 
to make better use than the Indians of th( 
fertile valleys and the mountains rich in ore.] 
As the Indians gave way to their successors,! 
he would have to change his method of work! 
and preach and teach the settlers. Was it not] 
proper to look forward to this time and by! 
every means in his power prepare to accom- 
plish his task? And how could his task bei 
accomplished unless the United States 
should be in control of the country? 

He recalled his talk with the missionaries] 
who felt just as he did. In his mind he went'l 
back to those spring days in 1838 when he! 
had gone over the whole ground with Jason 



Marcus Whitman^s Perilous Ride 175 

Liee, who was then on his way to Washington 
io urge Congress to take action making Ore- 
gon American territory. Jason Lee had re- 
turned with the word that Congress did not 
Seem ready to act, but hopefnl that it would 
io so before it was too late. He had inspired 
others with the same hope, and their hope 
seemed to be well grounded because of the 
3ompany of fifty-one whom Lee had piloted 
}ack with him. The knowledge that of the 
one hundred and fifty white people in Oregon 
the Americans had a large majority had 
caused them to feel secure. And when, in 
1842, one hundred and twenty-five more 
jAmericans came in, it seemed that the land 
'was won. 

But Whitman had heard of the coming of 
one hundred and fifty British subjects. He 
could not permit himself to rest longer in 
fancied security. It was the time to act, and 
to act decisively. Congress must grasp Ore- 
gon and hold it. 

How could Congress be persuaded to take 
action? Who could write a letter that would 
inspire with the vision of the coining West 
the men who lived in the East? And how 
could the letter be taken to Washington in 



176 Winning the Oregon Countey 

time? Some one should go to WashingtoDj 
and at once. Who would go? 

The questions were unanswerable — ^til 
Marcus Whitman answered them by saying; 
decisively : 

*^Iwillgo!'' 

He consulted his wife. She said, **Go!" 
He talked to his associates. They, too, aftej 
some hesitation, said **Go!" He talked tc( 
General Love joy, who had come out with thei 
last party of American immigrants, and he^ 
said, * ' Go, and I will go with you ! ' ^ 

The travelers set out on October 3, 1842, 
taking with them a number of Indians who 
were to guide them by a new route over the 
mountains. 

As Dr. Marcus Whitman mounted his mule, 
ready to begin his long ride of nearly four 
thousand miles, he said: 

^^My life is of little worth if I can save 
this country to the American people. ' ' 

Those who heard wondered if Whitman 
would indeed pay for his trip with his life.^ 
It was already late in the autumn. He would 
have to travel over the mountains in the 
depth of winter. They had tried to persuade 

^ For route see map at end of book. 



Maecus Whitman^s Peeilous Ride 177 

bim to wait till spring, but Ms answer had 
been that he could not wait, for it was only 
&ve months till Congress would adjourn. He 
knew the grave danger of the winter journey, 
but he would not delay because of danger. 
If it was in man's power to push through to 
Washington, he would succeed. 
j In eleven days Whitman was at Fort Hall, 
six hundred and forty-five miles on his way. 
There he met Captain Grant, a man who, six 
years before had done his best to persuade 
him to leave his wagon by the roadside. Once 
again attempt was made to discourage him. 
He was told that the trip he proposed was 
foolhardy in the winter season. Snow was 
already twenty feet deep in the mountains, 
and no one knew how much deeper it might 
be. Streams would be raging torrents. How 
could he hope to survive these perils 1 

But Marcus Whitman only smiled, and 
pressed on. The Indian guides returned and 
other guides were secured who agreed to lead 
the way south to New Mexico. The new route 
would be much longer, but the region of snow 
would be sooner crossed. He was the first 
white man to take that route, and a new way 
was always x>^rilous. But he must be in 



178 Winning the Oregon Country 

Washington before March 4, when Congress^' 
would adjourn. 

Some distance south from Fort Hall aa 
severe snow-storm began. Progress was slowv 
because of the drifts. No sooner was this^ 
storm safely left behind than another burst t 
in fury on the party. Further progress was: 
impossible, and the travelers made them- 
selves as comfortable as they could in a deep, 
dark ravine. After ten days, although the 
storm continued, Whitman resolved to con- 
tinue his journey. Once out of the shelter of 
the ravine the fury of the storm overwhelmed 
them and they lost their way and wandered 
for hours. They tried to return to the camp 
in the ravine, but they could not find their 
tracks. Dr. Whitman knelt in the snow and 
asked for God^s guidance and protection. 
When he rose from his knees, the g^aide no- 
ticed the action of the lead mule, which, after 
turning his long ears in various directions, 
began to plunge through the drifts. ** Fol- 
low the mule — ^he'U get us through,'' the 
guide shouted. Sure enough, in two hours 
they were back at the camp in the ravine. 

The guide refused to stay with the party 
longer, so Whitman went with him back to 




DR WHITMAN KNELT IN THE SNOW AND ASKED FOR GOD S 
GUIDANCE AND PROTECTION" 



Makcus Whitman^s Perilous Ride 179 

iFort Uncompaligre for another guide. Mr. 
Love joy remained in charge of the saddle 
animals, and kept them alive on cotton-wood 
jbark. 

After seven days Whitman returned with 
the new guide, and the journey was resumed, 
only to be interrupted again by the Eio 
Grande, six hundred feet wide, but frozen 
only two hundred feet or so from either 
bank. Even in the summer season this is 
one of the most treacherous rivers in 
the West. The guide said the open stretch 
of water could not be crossed, but Whit- 
man rode his horse into the icy flood. Mr. 
Lovejoy wrote in his journal: 

**Away they went completely under water, 
horse and all, but directly came up, and after 
buffeting the waves and foaming current, he 
made for the ice on the opposite side, a long 
way down the stream, leaped upon the ice 
and soon had his noble animal by his side. 
The guide and I forced in the pack-mule and 
followed the Doctor's example, and were soon 
drying our frozen clothes by a comfortable 
fire. ' ' 

This was the most trying experience of the 
journey. But there were more storms, and 



180 Winning the Oregon Country 

more rivers to cross. It was one of the se-^ 
verest winters known. If tlie northern routes 
had been taken it is doubtful if Whitman 
would ever have reached the Mississippi. As; 
it was, feet and hands and ears were f rozenj 
Again and yet again it seemed that the men 
must camp and wait for better weather. 
But each time Dr. Whitman argued, **I must 
be in Washington before March 4.'' 

Food grew scarce. The faithful dog was 
eaten, then a mule was killed. Fortunately, 
the meat thus secured lasted till Santa Fe 
was reached. 

What might have been a serious disaster 
overtook them while crossing the Arkansas 
Eiver. The camp ax was lost — and the ax is 
even more important to the frontiersman 
than his gun. This is how it happened : 

Whitman desired to cross the river to se- 
cure wood for fire to cook supper from the 
opposite bank ; as there was not a stick where 
they stood. The ice was too thin to bear his 
weight, so he adopted a method familiar to 
boys. Pushing the ax before him, he wrig- 
gled himself across on his stomach. Plenty 
of wood was cut and brought across. 

In some way the ax-handle was split dur- 



Makcus Whitman's Perilous Ride 181 

[ing the journey. Deerskin was wound about 
I the break, and the ax was left under the edge 

[ of the tent. While the tired men slept a wolf 

i 

f stole into camp, was attracted by the deer- 
skin, and to secure it, dragged the ax from 
the camp. It was never seen again. 

Fortunately the distance to a settler's 
cabin where another ax could be secured was 
not great. But if the misfortune had oc- 
curred in the mountains of Colorado or New 
Mexico, the heroes might never have been 
seen again. 
When he reached St. Louis he was sadly 

I in need of rest, but he would not permit him- 
self to stop. One who saw him as he passed 
through the city wrote this vivid description 
of his appearance: 

*^He was of medium height, more compact 
than spare, a stout shoulder, and large head 
not much above it, covered with stiff iron- 
gray hair, while his face carried all the mus- 
tache and whiskers that four months had 
been able to put on it. He carried himself 
awkwardly, though perhaps courteously 
enough for trappers, Indians, mules, and 
grizzlies, his principal company for six years. 
He wore coarse fur garments with buckskin 



182 Winning the Oregon Country 

breeclies. He had a buffalo overcoat, with a 
head hood for emergencies, with fur leggings 
and boot moccasins. His legs and feet fitted 
his Mexican stirrups. ' ' 

In St. Louis Whitman learned that a 
month after he left Oregon the Senate had 
confirmed a treaty with England which ar- 
ranged about a bit of the northeastern por- 
tion of the boundary line between Canada 
and the United States, but said nothing 
about Oregon. Then he was not too late! 
With grateful heart he hurried on. Mr. Love- 
joy had been left far behind, completely ex- 
hausted, but Whitman could not rest, for he 
must reach Washington before March 4 ! 

His determination enabled him to force his 
way through many obstacles, and he did fi- 
nally reach Washington — on March 3, 1843! 

With the directness of a man who knew 
just what he wanted, Whitman pleaded the 
cause of Oregon. He urged that at the very 
first opportunity an end be put to the period 
of joint occupation with Great Britain, and 
that the laws of the United States be put in 
force in the territory. He spoke of his re- 
gret that Oregon had not been mentioned in 
the treaty recently ratified, but he said he 



Marcus Whitman's Perilous Ride 183 

noped this error would be corrected at an 
aarly date. He told of tlie smiling, fertile 
land that was waiting for the settler, of his 
hope that settlers would come from America, 
and of his feeling that none would come till 
there was a stable government. 

Before his return to Oregon he put in writ- 
ing the substance of his arguments, outlined 
a plan for a territorial government under the 
United States, and told in detail of a practi- 
cable route for immigrant trains across the 
plains and the mountains. The documents 
were forwarded to Washington. 

At once Whitman began a campaign to in- 
duce immigrants to return with him to Ore- 
gon in that very year. He was so successful 
that a large company was gathered. The 
plans for the start were made by Whitman, 
and he was the ever-present helper of the 
travelers. Dr. Spalding says of Whitman's 
activity on the trip westward: 

**He was the ministering angel to the sick, 
helping the weary, encouraging the wavering, 
cheering the tired mothers, setting broken 
bones, and mending wagons. He was in the 
front, in the center, and in the rear. He was 
in the rivers hunting out fords through the 



184 Winning the Oeegon Country 

quicksand, in the desert places looking for 
water and grass, among the mountains hunt- 
ing for passes never before trodden by white 
men. At noontide and at midnight he was on 
the alert as if the whole line was his own 
family, and as if all the flocks and herds were 
his own. For all this he never asked nor ex- 
pected a dollar from any source, and espe- 
cially did he feel repaid at the end, when, 
standing at his mission home, hundreds of 
his fellow pilgrims took him by the hand and 
thanked him with tears in their eyes for all 
he had done." 

At Fort Hall Captain Grant, the servant 
of the Hudson Bay Company, tried to dis- 
courage the settlers from taking their wagons 
and farm tools with them. He pointed to a 
yard full of wagons and tools which other 
settlers had left behind. The immigrants 
were ready to do as he asked, till Whitman 
promised to help them through the moun- 
tains, wagons and all ! 

How he succeeded in the task he set him- 
self may be judged from a single incident of 
the way, after Fort Hall had been left be- 
hind : 

*'When the immigrants reached the Snake 



Marcus Whitman's Perilous Ride 185 

River, Dr. Whitman proceeded to fasten 
wagons together in one long string, the 
strongest in the lead. As soon as the teams 
were in position, he tied a rope around his 
waist and, starting his horse into the current, 
swam over. He called to others to follow 
him, and when they had force enough to pull 
at the rope, the lead team was started in, and 
all were drawn over in safety; as soon as the 
leading teams were able to get foothold on 
the bottom, all was safe, as they, guided by 
the strong arms of the men pulling at the 
rope, pulled the weaker ones along.'' 

From the Snake River the caravan — one 
hundred and twenty-five wagons, one thou- 
sand head of cattle, sheep and horses, and 
about one thousand men, women, and children 
— went northwest, through the Blue Moun- 
tains and Grand Ronde and on to Wai-i- 
lat-pu. 

And Oregon was won for the United 
States, won by a peaceful invasion. The im- 
migrants, delighted by their new home, wrote 
home telling of the wonderful country. They 
wrote to congressmen and senators, urging 
the United States to make Oregon a part of 
the country. Everywhere there was discus- 



186 Winning the Oregon Country 

sion of the qnestion, ^'Do we want Oregon?'^ 
And at last Congress, bowing to public sen^ 
timent, concluded a treaty with Great Brit-- 
ain for the possession of the land already 
occupied. 

Thus, on August 5, 1846, it came to pasj 
that the Oregon Country — ^including the pr( 
ent States of Washington, Oregon, and Idahi 
and parts of Montana and Wyoming, mor< 
than thirty-four times as much territory 
all of Massachusetts — found its way undei 
the American flag! 

America could claim the Oregon Countr 
because of the discovery of the Columbia 
Eiver by Gray, the exploration of Lewis and 
Clark, and the occupation by settlers and 
farmers. The account of Whitman's ride to 
Washington and his return with the immi- 
grant party shows the important part he 
played in making the country a part of the 
United States. 

The story of Whitman's Eide has been 
written in verse by Alice Wellington Rollins. 
Here is a part of the stirring poem: 

** Listen, my children, and you shall hear 
Of a hero 's ride that saved a State. 
A midnight ride? Nay, child, for a year 
He rode with a message that could not wait. 



Marcus Whitman^s Perilous Ride 187 

Eighteen hundred and forty- two; 

No railroad then had gone crashing through 

To the Western coast; not a telegraph wire 

Had guided there the electric fire; 

But a fire burned in one strong man's breast 

For a beacon light. You shall hear the rest. 



it 



tt 



Twenty-four hours he stopped to think. 

To think! Nay, then, if he thought at all, 

He thought as he tightened his saddle-girth. 

One tried companion, who would not shrink 

From the worst to come; with a mule or two 

To carry arms and supplies, would do, 

With a guide as far as Fort Bent. And she, 

The woman of proud, heroic worth. 

Who must part from him, if she wept at all. 

Wept as she gathered whatever he 

Might need for the outfit on his way. 

Fame for the man who rode that day 

Into the wilds at his country's call; 

And for her who waited for him a year 

On that wild Pacific Coast, a tear! 



It is December as they ride 

Slowly across the Great Divide; 

The blinding storm turns day to night, 

And clogs their feet; the snowflakes roll 

The winding-sheet about them; sight 

Is darkened; faint the despairing soul. 

No trail before or behind them. Spur 

His horse? Nay, child, it were death to stif! 

Motionless horse and rider stand. 

Turning to stone; till one poor mule. 



188 Winning the Oregon Country 

Pricking his ears^ as if to say 

If they gave him rein he would find the way, 

Found it and led them back, poor fool, 

To last night's camp in that lonely land. 



" It was March when he rode at last 
Into the streets of Washington. 
The warning questions came thick and fast; 
'Do you know that the British will colonize, 
If you wait another year, Oregon 
And the Northwest, thirty-four times the size 
Of Massachusetts? ' A courteous stare, 
And the Government murmurs : * Ah, indeed ! 
Pray, why do you think that we should care? 
With Indian arrows and mountain snow 
Between us, we never can colonize 
The wild Northwest from the East, you know. 
If you doubt it, why, we will let you read 
The London Examiner; proofs enough 
The Northwest is worth just a pinch of snuff.' 



** You know the rest. In the books you have read 
That the British were not a year ahead. 
The United States have kept Oregon, 
Because of one Marcus Whitman. He 
Eode eight thousand miles, and was not too late! 
In a single hand, not a Nation's fate. 
Perhaps; but a gift for the Nation, she 
Would hardly part with it to-day, if we 
May believe what the papers say upon 
This great Northwest, that was Oregon. ' ' 



GUNS AND TOMAHAWKS 



CHAPTER X 



GUNS AND TOMAHAWKS 



The very Indians most benefited by the Mission, led by a 
miserable mixed-blood named Joe Lewis, who had been 
clothed and befriended by the Doctor, perpetrated the ter- 
ttible crime. — ^Meany. 

Only a few montlis after tlie United States 
jtook possession of Oregon, there was evi- 
dence of something wrong in the lodges of 
the Caynse at Wai-i-lat-pn, where the brave 
Whitman had again taken up his work. In- 
stead of the nsnal activity, there was the si- 
lence of death, except when the medicine-men 
were busy with their incantations. The 
braves went to fish in the streams only when 
driven by hunger. When night came they did 
not gather together about the camp-fire for 
an hour of companionable talk before lying 
down to sleep; they kept to themselves. 
Their heads hung low. They muttered sav- 
age threats, and looked in the direction of 

191 



192 Winning the Oregon Country 

Whitman's mission. The squaws had nc 
time to gossip with their neighbors, and 
when they had to come from the lodges too 
grind corn at the mill or to gather wood forr 
the fires, they returned as speedily as pos- 
sible. There was no sound of children 'ss 
laughter ; there were few children to be seem 
where usually they ran in troops about the^ 
camp. 

As the days passed, the men who had beeni 
going out to fish and the women who had I 
been busy with the most necessary camp* 
work were seen no more. Other men and 
women took their places. But what was 
wrong with them? They were gaunt and hol- 
low-eyed, and they tottered feebly as they 
walked. Yet they knew that they must keep 
moving, for there was work to be done. From 
nearly every lodge, they bore a burden 
wrapped in blankets and skins. They car- 
ried this without the camp. The burdens 
they carried were all the same shape, but 
they were not the same size. Some were as 
long as a man, others were about the size 
of a woman. Then there were bundles which 
made one think of a boy or a girl. And there 
were little bundles, so small that each one was 



Guns and Tomahawks 193 

carried without effort, usually by a squaw 
who alternately crooned and moaned, as if 
she were talking to her child. 

Where were they going? What were they 
carrying? Where were all the children? 
What had become of the scores of men and 
women who, only a little while before, were 
in the camp ? 

Many of these were sick. And many more 
were dead. The strong had been nursing 
those who first fell sick; then the sick had 
risen to care for their nurses who took their 
places on the fur robes which were their beds, 
or to help in the sorrowful task of prepar- 
ing for burial the men and women and chil- 
dren who had died. 

Like a destroying wind the strange sick- 
ness ran its course. It was an epidemic of 
measles, and the Indians' sweat baths fol- 
lowed by cold baths killed even the strongest.^ 
When the last patients had either tottered 

* Their method of treating any disease of whicli fever 
was a part was to enter a pit into which hot rocks had been 
thrown, then casting water on the rocks to create a dense 
vapor, in which, stripped of clothing, they would remain 
until thoroughly steamed. Thence issuing stark naked and 
dripping with perspiration, they would plunge into an icy 
cold stream. Death was the almost inevitable result in 
cases of measles. — ^Lyman, The Columtia Biver, 205. 



194 Winning the Oregon Country 

from their beds or been carried without the 
camp, the survivors openly declared that the 
missionaries were responsible for their suf- 
fering. Dr. "Whitman and his companions 
had been visiting the lodges during the sick- 
ness; they said they had come to help, but 
now the Cayuse decided they knew better. 
The missionaries wanted to kill the Cayuse 
that they might own the land! Why hadn't 
the poor Cayuse listened to those who, years 
before, told them that the missionaries were 
only waiting for a good chance to accomplish 
their purpose? The Cayuse had trusted the 
missionaries — and this was the result! The 
missionaries had used bad medicine, and the 
Cayuse were dead! 

As they talked of their suspicions, they 
recalled the death of Clarissa WTiitman, **the 
little white Cayuse Queen.'' They had felt 
at that time that something was wrong. They 
spoke of the mysterious deaths of boys and 
girls in the mission school. They told of the 
sufferings from malaria, and they charged 
every death for years to the evil influence of 
the missionaries. They said that the mis- 
sionaries worked cautiously in those days, 
and had been content to kill only one at a 



Guns and Tomahawks 195 

time! But now they had grown bold and 
they had tried to destroy the camp at one 
blow ! 

Again and again Marcus "Whitman and his 
associates had explained to the Cayuse that 
much of their sickness was caused by failure 
to take care of themselves, or by unwise eat- 
ing, as, for instance, when they feasted on 
melons stolen from the patch at the mission. 
Then their barbarous way of treating the 
sick was responsible for the death of many 
who might have recovered. Once they had 
listened respectfully to explanations. But 
now their eyes were opened, and they knew 
that the explanations so carefully given were 
only a part of the awful plot to put them all 
to death! 

Their anger was so terrible as they thought 
of their wrongs that they were ready to listen 
to one who cried: 

**Let the white medicine-men die!" 

The cry was taken up. It was repeated not 
only by those who had refused to listen to the 
missionaries, but by many who had been 
closely associated with them for eleven years. 
Even members of the church in which Marcus 
Whitman was an elder, were carried away 



'196 Winning the Oregon Country 

by the blood-lust of the moment. And then 
the Indians made the agreement that the 
Wai-i-lat-pu mission, with all its members, 
should be destroyed. 

The faithful Is-ti-kus learned of the agree- j 
ment and hurried to Dr. Whitman. He urged 
him, *^Go away until my people have better 
hearts." The missionary went about his 
work as usual that day, visiting the sick and 
ministering to them. When he reached home 
late at night he told Mrs. Whitman of Is-ti- 
kus' warning. They decided that it would be 
wise to go to a place of safety as soon as 
they could leave the sick Indians. 

Brave Dr. and Mrs. Whitman! Hubert 
H. Bancroft made a true statement when he 
said of the Doctor: **He was no ordinary 
man. I do not know which to admire most 
in him, his coolness or his courage. His 
nerves were of steel, his patience was ex- 
celled only by his fearlessness. In the 
mighty calm of his nature he was a Cassar 
for Christ." And similar words might have 
been spoken of Mrs. Whitman. 

The blow fell on Monday morning, Novem- 
ber 29, 1847. Marcus Whitman had been out 
to the camp helping to bury an Indian. When 



! 



Guns and Tomahawks 197 

i 

he returned to tlie house he thought nothing 

of the presence there of several Indians. 
One of the men attracted his attention by 
asking for medicine. ** Another came behind 
him with tomahawk^ concealed under his 
blanket and with two blows in the back of the 
head, brought him to the floor senseless, prob- 
ably but not lifeless ; soon after Ti-lau-kait, 
a candidate for admission in our Church 
came in and beat and cut Dr. Whitman's face 
and cut his throat; but he still lingered till 
near night.^ 

**As soon as the firing commenced at the 
different places, Mrs. Hayes ran in and as- 
sisted Mrs. "Whitman in taking the Doctor 
from the kitchen to the sitting-room and 
placed him upon the settee. This was before 
his face was cut. His wife bent over him 



* This tomahawk was recovered, and it is one of the treas- 
ures preserved at the rooms of the Historical Society, Port- 
land, Oregon. 

^The quotation is from the letter of Mr. Spalding. In 
the letter he wrote to Mrs. Whitman's parents, telling of 
the events of this terrible day. He mentioned Mr. Eogers, 
a young teacher; John and Thomas Sager, two of the 
orphans whom the Whitmans had adopted; Mr. Kimball, a 
settler from Indiana; and Miss Bewley, the daughter of a 
settler from Missouri. 



198 Winning the Oregon Country 

and mingled her tears with his blood. It was 
all she could do. 

** John Sager, who was sitting by the Doe- 
tor when he received the first blow, drew his 
pistol, but his arm was seized, the room fill- 
ing with Indians, and his head was cut to 
pieces. He lingered till near night. Mr. 
Eogers, attacked at the water, escaped with a 
broken arm and wound in the head, and rush- 
ing into the house, shut the door. The In-j 
dians seemed to have left the house now to' 
assist in murdering others. Mr. Kimball, 
with a broken arm, rushed in; both secreted 
themselves up-stairs. 

'*Mrs. Whitman in anguish, now bending 
over her dying husband and now over the 
sick; now comforting the flying, screaming 
children, was passing by the window, when 
she received the first shot in her right breast, 
and fell to the floor. She immediately arose 
and kneeled by the settee on which lay her 
bleeding husband, and commended her soul to 
God, and prayed for her children who were 
about to be made a second time orphans. 

**In the meantime the doors and windows 
were broken in and the Indians entered and 
commenced plundering, but they feared to go 



Guns and Tomahawks 199 

into the chamber. They called for Mrs. 
Whitman and Mr. Rogers to come down and 
promised they should not be hurt. This 
promise was often repeated, and they came 
down. Mrs. Whitman, faint with the loss of 
blood, was carried on a settee to the door.'' 

A few moments later Mrs. Whitman was 
killed as she lay on the settee, pierced by 
many bullets. Then she was scalped by an 
Indian named Tam-suk-y. Mr. Rogers was 
shot at the same time. The children who 
crowded into the corners were saved from 
death by the appeal of an Indian more hu- 
mane than the rest who cried, **Do not shoot 
the children." 

This was only the beginning. The Cayuse, 
assisted by the Walla Wallas, rushed to the 
houses of the settlers, and killed a number of 
them. In all fourteen were slain, nine the 
first day, but the fate of those who died then 
was more fortunate than that of many of the 
party, women and children carried away cap- 
tive by the murderers. A number of the cap- 
tives died. The others were ransomed after 
two awful weeks, through the authority and 
generosity of the Hudson Bay Company. 

The five men who succeeded in escaping 



200 Winning the Oregon Country 

from the station on that day of awful slaugh- 
ter did not rest till they had stirred up the 
United States authorities to apprehend the 
leaders among the murderers. Tam-suk-y 
was killed at the moment of arrest. Five 
others arrested with him were executed more 
than two years after the tragedy. 

This was the end of the Wai-i-lat-pu mis- 
sion. The missionaries were dead or scat- 
tered, and the Indians speedily vanished — 
driven away by the avenging settlers. 

In later years the murderers of Whitman 
frequently heard the sneer, * ^ They belong to 
the tribe that killed Whitman." From this 
taunt there was relief for none but those who 
listened to the appeals of missionaries and 
gave themselves to Christ. 

The revenge of the Wai-i-lat-pu Indians 
spread to some of the wilder spirits among 
the Nez Perces at Lapwai. Dr. Spalding 
learned of the danger when he was on his way 
to Wai-i-lat-pu to assist Dr. Whitman in 
caring for the sick Indians. When forty 
miles from his destination he met a rider 
who told him of the destruction of his friends. 
At once he turned and rode back to Lapwai 
as fast as his horse could carry him. 




From "Marcus Whitman," copyright 1901, Silver, Burdett & Company. 
THE FIRST GRAVE OF THE MARTYRS 




LEE MISSION CEMETERY 



I 



Guns and Tomahawks 201 

But before he could reach her Mrs. Spald- 
ing heard the news from a settler who had 
escaped from Wai-i-lat-pu. He urged her to 
flee before the Nez Perces heard of it. But 
she trusted her Indians, and told them her- 
self. Their sorrow was great, especially 
when they thought that Dr. Spalding might 
have reached the field of bloodshed and have 
been among the victims. 

On Sunday morning several of the Nez 
Perces who had shown themselves most 
friendly to the Spaldings besought her to flee 
with her children to their camp. They told 
her they had heard threats against the fam- 
ily- 
Mrs. Spalding longed to be in safety. Her 

heart yearned for her children. But she 
stopped to think that it was Sunday. For 
years she had been teaching the Indians to 
keep the Sabbath holy. What impression 
would be made on their minds if she should 
be seen moving to the camp on that day? 
Her resolution was taken promptly. So she 
replied firmly: 

**I will not flee on the Sabbath day. The 
Lord can take care of me here." 

But early on Monday the Indian friends 



202 Winning the Oeegon Country 

were back again. This time she went with 
them. 

And she was just in time. The aronsed 
Indians rushed upon her honse, but found it 
empty. In their anger at the escape of Mrs. 
Spalding, they carried away many articles 
and destroyed many others. 

As Dr. Spalding returned he feared the 
worst, but when he found his loved" ones safe 
at the Nez Perces ' camp, his heart overflowed 
with joy. The reunited family returned to 
their home, only to be driven from it once 
more when the Cayuse War, brought on by 
the Whitman massacre, broke up all the mis- 
sion stations in the region. Then, under 
guard of forty faithful Nez Perces, he took 
his family to Fort Walla Walla. It was his 
joy to return to his work after many years' 
absence, but Mrs. Spalding died four years 
later. Her most lasting monument was built 
in the hearts of the Nez Perces who, when 
asked why they keep the Sabbath, sometimes 
tell the story of her refusal to flee for her life 
on the Sabbath day. 

When the heroes and martyrs of Oregon 
are named, Jason Lee should be given a place 
among them. While it is true that he was 



Guns and Tomahawks 203 

not called upon to suffer a violent death at 
the hands of the Indians, his life was sacri- 
ficed in the interests of the work he loved. 
When, in 1844 — three years before the Whit- 
man massacre — he went East for the last 
time, he was worn out by exposure,exhausted 
by the strain of his work, and an easy vic- 
tim of disease. In his native town, Stan- 
stead, Connecticut, he preached his last ser- 
mon in November, 1844. Those who looked 
on his wasted form shook their heads; they 
felt that he could never return to Oregon as 
he longed to do. 

They were right. On March 12, 1845, he 
fell asleep. He was only forty-one years old. 
But how much he had accomplished in his 
short life! 

Although he was buried in Connecticut, his 
body in 1906 was taken back to the country 
for which he gave his life. 



MONUMENTS MORE LASTING 
THAN BRASS 



CHAPTER XI 

MONUMENTS MOKE LASTING THAN BRASS 

The missionaries, Lee and Whitman, bore each his 
part, and a great one, in the great final result. It is not too 
much to say that of the various lines of influence by which 
the valley of the Columbia became American territory, that 
of missions was one of the strongest. — ^Lyman. 

In 1893 Miss Sue McBeth, one of the suc- 
cessors of Dr. Spalding at Lapwai, had com- 
pleted a dictionary and grammar in Nez 
Perce. When she died she left directions 
that these should be sent to the Smithsonian 
Institution at Washington. 

The manuscripts were packed in a box and 
delivered to the express company, which 
planned to carry it by river steamer, then by 
rail. The steamer was wrecked, and the box 
disappeared. Anxious inquiries were made 
for it, but there seemed no hope of recovering 
the precious documents. 

A farmer who lived some miles below the 
spot where the steamer was lost — the only 

207 



208 Winning the Oregon Country 



farmer on the river from tlie source to the 
mouth — was attracted by many floating boxes 
and bales. Among these he saw a red box. 
He had allowed other things to float past, 
but for some reason he felt that the box must 
be rescued. He plunged into the river on 
horseback, as he went making a noose in the 
rope attached to the saddle. With this he 
succeeded in lassoing the box just as it was 
entering some rapids where it would have 
been dashed to pieces. He pulled it ashore, 
opened it, recognized the Nez Perce charac- 
ters which he had learned from Miss McBeth, 
and decided that the manuscript must belong 
to the mission. In order that he might re- 
store it in as good condition as possible, he 
separated the pages and spread them out to 
dry. Then the pages were put in order once 
more, and the box was sent on its way. 

This story of the disappearance and provi- 
dential preservation of the manuscript in the 
red box is a picture of the preservation of 
the work of Oregon's pioneer missionaries 
through the years succeeding the interrup- 
tion of missionary work caused by the massa- 
cre at Wai-i-lat-pu and the Indian wars that 
followed. Perhaps it seemed for a time that 



I 

I 

More Lasting Than Brass 209 

the work had been done in vain. Many 
thought that it had left behind no more trace 
than a stick when it is withdrawn from the 
water into which it has been thrust. But all 
the time God was taking care of the work. 
He did not permit the efforts of faithful 
men and women to be lost. And so from time 
to time the exclamation has been made by 
persons who have been studying events in 
Oregon and Washington and Idaho, *^Why, 
this is a result of the mission work done sixty 
or seventy years ago by those missionary pio- 
neers!" As the years pass there is more 
and more recognition of the fact that Jason 
Lee and Marcus Whitman and Dr. Spalding 
and their wives and associates are still speak- 
ing in that Western land through the de- 
scendants of those who were inspired by 
them to live for God. 

Some of the churches in which the pioneers 
preached and worshiped have disappeared, 
but in all parts of Oregon and Washington 
are other churches, which were founded 
through the agency of the early immigrants. 
As the immigrant trains passed by Wai-i- 
lat-pu, or The Dalles, they talked with the 
missionaries. Many of them were welcomed 



210 Winning the Oregon Country 

to the homes of the missionaries because they 
were sick or weary or lonely. The thought 
of the earnest lives of these men and women 
would remain with the visitors as they went 
on to begin their battle with the wilderness^ 
and the new homes would be blessed by the 
memory. Many a man who had grown care- 
less during the long, rough journey across 
the plains and over the mountains would be 
turned back to a useful life because of a kind 
word or a loving deed. Many a woman who 
had felt that there was no use trying to be 
a Christian under the new conditions would 
take fresh courage, as she watched gentle 
Mrs. Whitman or faithful Mrs. Spalding 
teaching the Indians or ministering to the 
sick or caring for the orphan children of emi- 
grants. True Christian example was touch- 
ing life after life among incoming settlers. 
And when other immigrants came who did 
not stop at the mission station, they would 
make their homes among neighbors who had 
been strengthened in Christian faith or held 
back from evil courses by the influence of the 
missionaries. The presence of these neigh- 
bors would have its effect, until gradually 
there would be communities where Christians 



More Lasting Than Brass 211 

v'ere respected and careless living was 
rowned upon. 

Churclies organized in many such commu- 
dties owed their inspiration to missionaries 
vho had never seen the towns in which they 
;7ere planted. In fact, it would be no more 
;han just to say that every church spire in 
;he Oregon of to-day is a monument to the 
jarly missionaries. 

Some of the far-reaching results of the 
work among the Indians can be more defi- 
litely traced. When Dr. Spalding left Lap- 
wai in 1847, he feared that the work of years 
would go for nothing. But eight years after 
his departure visitors to the Indians at Lap- 
wai found that in the lodges of hundreds 
there was regular morning and evening fam- 
ily worship, while there was public worship 
on Sunday. 

In the homes and in the church the Nez 
Perces rejoiced to sing the hymns and read 
the book of Matthew which Mrs. Spalding 
had first translated and then printed on the 
press sent to the mission from the Sandwich 
Islands. And all this when there was no mis- 
sionary to guide them! A few of their own 
number pleaded with the Indians to be faith- 



212 Winning the Oregon Country 

fill. *^When Dr. Spalding comes back hi 
must find us living as he taught us/' the; 
would say. 

But there came a period when the pleas oi 
the leaders seemed to be unheard. An Indiai 
agency was established where the Lapwa| 
Creek joined the Clearwater, and with it cam( 
evil influences. Eough men among the sol- 
diers and those who followed the arm^ 
tempted the Indians, and they fell. Theyl 
were encouraged in drinking, swearing, gam-; 
bling, and lying. Still they kept up their cus- 
tom of family prayers, the blessing at table, 
and the Sunday gatherings for worship. 
These observances seemed to be only a form, 
however. Were the Indians forgetting! 
Those who knew them then say that while 
they may have forgotten some of the com- 
mandments, parents were particular to keep 
before the minds of their children, **Eemem- 
ber the Sabbath day to keep it holy," **Thou 
shalt not kill, ' ' and ^ ^ Thou shalt not steal. ' * 

There came a day in 1870 when four young 
Yakima braves came to the camp of the Nez 
Perces. They had been trained by Mr. Wil- 
bur, a missionary on the Yakima reservation. 
When they saw the way the Nez Perces were 



More Lasting Than Brass 213 

living, they were mueh troubled ; it seemed to 
tliem awful that men and women who prayed 
and sang hymns and went to church should 
drink with the lowest of the white men. The 
young men talked to one another about the 
bad things they saw, and they said that some- 
thing must be done. But what could be done ? 
There ought to be a missionary there to teach 
the men and women better ways. Yet where 
could they get a missionary? 

While they were puzzling over their prob- 
lem, the most earnest of the young men said : 

*^We must be missionaries here. Father 
Wilbur said to us we must tell others about 
Jesus.'' 

Then those four young Indians began to 
preach to the Nez Perces. At first there were 
only a few who came to hear. They were 
angry. Why should these Yakimas talk to 
them as if they were bad men? They were 
Christians ! But as the young men preached 
on, they had less to say. They went home 
and told their friends about the meetings. 
More and more people came to hear the gos- 
pel. Some of them came to make fun of the 
speakers, but before long they were on their 
knees praying, crying out to God for for- 



214 Winning the Oregon Country 

giveness and strength to lead a better life. 
So great was their sorrow for sin that men 
sobbed with the women. The spot where the 
meetings were held is still known as *Hhe 
place of weeping.*' They threw away their 
bottles, their pipes, and the feathers and tails 
of animals which they carried with them as 
charms to drive away evil spirits. Many who 
had forgotten the lesson the missionaries ; 
taught them about marriage stood up and 
were married in meeting. They were not 
sure that the Yakima leaders could marry 
them, but they could not wait till a mission- 
ary should come. 

The people afterward showed by their lives 
that they were in earnest. Thirty years later, 
when there were six churches among the Nez 
Perces, there were members in each of these 
who had become Christians when the four 
consecrated Yakimas preached the gospel at 
Lapwai. 

All these years Dr. Spalding had not been 
far away, longing for the chance to return to 
his people at Lapwai. Twenty-four years he 
waited. Then came the news of the great 
meeting and its results. A strong hand was 
neiaded to guide the converts. Dr. Spalding 



More Lasting Than Brass 215 

felt that he must go at once. So, in 1871, he 
was again among the Indians who were show- 
ing that they had not forgotten the lessons 
learned in the mission school and the church 
so long ago. The seed sown then had only 
been buried out of sight. Now it was spring- 
ing into life. 

Dr. Spalding was nearly seventy years old, 
but he rode about as if he were twenty years 
younger. He preached in many places, he 
visited in the homes of the Indians, he re- 
ceived them to membership in the churches. 
They came by scores and by hundreds. The 
revival begun before his arrival continued 
for years. Two years after his coming he 
had received into the church at Lapwai 155 
men and 189 women, into the church at Ka- 
miah, 123 men and 188 women, into the 
church at Spokane, 112 men and 141 women. 
He spoke of all these members as if they be- 
longed to the old first church of Oregon, or- 
ganized at Wai-i-lat-pu in 1838. Perhaps he 
was right, for the Nez Perce churches all 
grew out of the work done by Whitman and 
his associates in that church. 

But the Wai-i-lat-pu church had had a still 
wider influence. Not only did these three 



216 Winning the Oregon Country 

churclies grow out of it, but three more 
churches among the Nez Perces, two among 
the Spokanes, one among the Umatillas, one 
among the Shoshones of southern Idaho, and 
one among the Shivwits of Utah. 

A few years ago one who lived at Lapwai 
spoke of the fact that on a Sunday morning, 
from the top of a high hill, one could look 
this way and that and see the ponies with 
their riders descending the steep hillsides, 
and count the spring wagons emerging from 
the canyons. All trails led to the church, and 
every trail was thronged. 

The churches have Indian officers and In- 
dian ministers. Early in the service they 
repeat their version of The Lord's Prayer: 

1. Nunim Pisht Aishniwashpa imim wanikt 
hautnin Kam watu. 

2. Imim miohatoit ki anashapautsasham, 
Imim Kutki anashapautsam uyikashliph Ka 
Kush aishniwashpa, hikutanih. 

3. Taka lahaipa hipt natsnim taksain. 

4. Nuna wasatiai nashwaunim Ka Kush 
nun titokana wasatiai awaunaitanih. 

5. Wat mat anashtahinawiyukum nuna, 
matu taklai nuna shapakapshish wiatupkinih 



More Lasting Than Brass 217 

natsnahwuinukum : Imim awam inakanikt, 
imim awam Kapskapsnawit, imim awam sis- 
keiwit Kunku. Amen.^ 

And tlien they sing in their own tongue, 
the old church hymns, hundreds of which have 
been translated for them. A favorite with 
all is *'The Lord Is My Shepherd''. 

1. Lord hewash inim suptiumkawat, 
In watu hiyahnu, 

Ipnim sapatamaliku ina 
Yos-yospa tsik-tsikpa. 

2. Ipnim hetelkakiku ina 
Kots-allie. 

Inim wakaswit heleulimkanu 
Ipnimki wanekitki. 

3. Sekounie ipskekiku 
Tinkinim poholpa, 

Im ah wiatwatsam ina ; 
Inim Jakin sapahipstuenash. 

*This version and that of the hymn which follows con- 
form to the rendering given in Kate C. McBeth, TJie Nes 
Perces Since Lewis and ClarJc, 251, 252. 



I 

218 Winning the Oregon Country 

4. Ekuin taatswit wah misheyoukt, 
Tewiktatasha ina; 
In touyaneku Lordnim Init 
Kunku wah kunku. 

For many years there was no one who took 
more delight in the singing than old elder 
Billy Williams, the man who listened to Dr. 
Spalding's advice to plant potatoes and won 
his wife because of the splendid crop he 
gathered. Often Billy was asked to sing the 
church hymns for visitors. Once Miss 
Fletcher, a teacher in the Lapwai school, 
asked him to sing one of the heathen songs. 
A look of determination came into his face 
as he answered, '*I love Miss Fletcher, but I I 
cannot do that without hurt to my own soul.'' 

In his early life Billy was so eager for 
Bible instruction that once he traveled sixty 
miles to a missionary teacher with fifty-two 
Bible pictures — one for each Sunday in the 
year — carefully wrapped in a large handker- 
chief. He asked to have them explained. 
The teacher agreed to do this if he would 
come to her for a little while every evening. 
He agreed to stay near by, then listened to 
his lesson every evening and went home to 




ELDER BILLY WILLIAMS 

Who listened to Dr. Spalding's advice to plant potatoes 
and won his wife" 



MoEE Lasting Than Brass 219 

think far into the night of what he had been 
told. 

Becanse there were many Indians as sin- 
cere as Billy, the Indian churches have put to 
shame many white settlers near, and these 
have resolved to live purer lives. 

Oregon's first schools as well as her first 
churches grew directly out of the work of the 
pioneer missionaries. The primitive school 
opened by Cyrus Shepard in 1834, as soon as 
he and Jason Lee were able to throw a build- 
ing together, prospered from the day the first 
curious Indian boys and girls entered its 
doors. After a while, when without further 
facilities, it seemed impossible to teach the 
Indians the joy of laboring with their hands, 
the Manual Labor School was opened. There 
the boys were shown the mysteries of car- 
pentering and painting and blacksmithing, 
and the girls were taught to sew, to cook, to 
weave baskets, and to do many other useful 
things. 

The Indians grew fewer and fewer as the 
settlers came in from the East. The Manual 
Labor School was almost deserted. A school 
was needed in its place for the boys and girls 
of American parents, many of whom hesita- 



220 Winning the Oregon Country 

ted to go to tlie new land because there were 
no schools. To help these boys and girls and 
the boys and girls who would come in later 
years the Oregon Institute was opened at 
Salem — the first school for higher education 
on the Pacific Coast. 

Many said it was foolish to open such a 
school. They asked where the pupils were to 
come from. There were less than ten thou- 
sand people in all of what is now Washing- 
ton and Oregon. There was no Portland, no 
Seattle, no Tacoma. The largest town in the 
whole country held less than four hundred 
people. There were practically no roads. 
One of the first teachers who came to the In- 
stitute was obliged to reach it by canoe and 
ox-cart. 

But the people who had seen the work of 
the Shepard Indian School and Manual Labor 
School said that the Institute was needed as 
much as those others had been needed. And 
the school was opened. Hundreds of boys 
and girls were trained there and sent out into 
homes all over the Oregon Country. 

As the school had become the Institute, so 
the Institute became the University. Wil- 
lamette University was founded at Salem to 




OREGON INSTITUTE 

The first school for higher education on the Pacific Coast 



1 


i 


f 


Jl 


1^. 


I 




I^T 


li'll ... 


i 


S'u^ i M 


LULEB-f-f^ 


1 1 


^S^.-^q 








^^^^ 


..ll,;..i"" 


■ 


faHH 


■ • 


I PK" 


H^"* 1 >" 




fSSSEmBSBF^^^tSm^ 


|^7^:S :=. ^-"11 


■'^r^H^p^^ 








^^^^^^^^"^'V -'..'-" 







EATON HALL 

One of the buiklings of Willamette University 



w 



More Lasting Than Brass 221 

train the young people sent to it from acade- 
mies like that at Portland, which was opened 
when the city had less than one hundred pop- 
ulation. 

The site of the school at Wai-i-lat-pu has 
become the site of a college. For a few years 
after Whitman's massacre the site of the 
mission was deserted. Then one who had 
known Marcus Whitman and his wife, the 
Eev. Gushing Eells, visited the grave of the 
martyrs. At first he thought there should 
be a great monument there. Then he thought 
that his martyred friend, if he could choose, 
would prefer that a Christian high school 
open to boys and girls, should be built near 
the spot where he gave his life for his In- 
dians. 

So Mr. Eells bought the farm on which Mr. 
and Mrs. Whitman had settled more than 
twenty years before, and near it in the vil- 
lage of Walla Walla he planned to open 
Whitman Seminary. He toiled on the farm 
to raise money to pay for the building. He 
plowed, he reaped, he cut cordwood, and as 
he worked he thought with joy that he was 
so much nearer the accomplishing of his 
dream. Mrs. Eells made butter and raised 



222 Winning the Oregon Country 

chickens in order that she might add to the 
fund. And when husband and wife grew 
weary they needed only to go to the door of 
the house and look out at the grave where the 
body of Whitman lay, to gain fresh strength 
for their work. 

After five years of labor on the farm Mr. 
and Mrs. Eells had saved four thousand dol- 
lars. Then they were ready to plan for the 
first building of the Seminary. The school 
grew and became a college into whose halls 
come yearly scores of young men and women 
who are taught the lessons that will make 
them want to go out into the world and carry 
on the work of the martyrs whose grave is 
so near at hand. 

The monuments of the pioneer missionaries 
have not merely been carved in marble ; they 
are to be found in the churches and schools 
of the great Northwest, and in the lives of 
the people who enter their doors. 



THE COUNTRY WON 



CHAPTEE XII 



THE COUNTKY WON 



Had it not been for the missionary operations among 
the Indians in Oregon, it is likely that we might never have 
secured permanently any of the Oregon territory, or, if any, 
only that which lies south of the Columbia Eiver. — Mo"\vey. 

Those statesmen at Washington, who 
thought that the Oregon Country was a 
worthless tract of mountain and desert 
should look at the *^ worthless tract '^ to-day! 
They would indeed see lofty mountains with 
snow-clad summits and glacier-covered sides, 
great river gorges like that of the Columbia, 
whose cliffs are four or ^ve thousand feet 
high, which would lead them to think that 
they were right in their contempt for Ore- 
gon. But if they could look on the smiling 
valleys, the fertile fields, the placid lakes, 
and the great rivers, they would not be sur- 
prised to see the populous towns and cities. 

It was long thought by those who knew 
nothing of the country that the weather must 

225 



226 Winning the Oregon Country 

be very hot in summer and very cold in win- 
ter. Yet settlers west of the Cascades have 
found that the climate in the valleys is more 
like that of parts of California or Florida. 
Where snow falls it is quickly melted by the 
warm Chinook winds from the Pacific. There 
is rain in abundance, but most of it falls in 
the winter ; and it is all needed to prepare the 
land for the abundant harvests yielded. East 
of the Cascades the climate is more like that 
of Central New York. 

Visitors are astonished by the size of the 
Oregon Country. Perhaps the best way to 
realize the truth is to look at a map of other 
parts of the United States. If one should 
take all the New England States and should 
imagine three Delawares and the District of 
Columbia added to them, he would have a 
notion of the size of Washington. He will 
find that Oregon is larger than New York, 
Pennsylvania, and Ehode Island if they were 
joined together. 

The distance from the southern line of Ore- 
gon to the British Columbia line — across the 
two States of Oregon and Washington — is 
the same as the distance from New York 
City west to Toledo, or from Quebec to the 



SECOND AVENUE, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 



I 



The Country Won 227 

western end of Lake Ontario, or from Ham- 
burg, Germany, to Bern, Switzerland. 

Of course mnch of this vast territory is 
mountainous, but a large proportion is made 
up of some of the richest land in the world. 
East of the mountains is a region called 
**The Great Inland Empire, '^ more than 
twice the size of New England, which, until 
a generation ago, was thought to be a desert 
waste. That section has become one of the 
largest and richest grain fields on earth. It 
was found that the land needed nothing but 
water to change it from a desert to a garden, 
and there was water in abundance from the 
melting snows on the mountains. Men had 
only to build reservoirs to store the water 
and ditches to convey it to the waiting fields, 
and the transformation came. One can easily 
see the difference made by the water by going 
to a spot where the ditches stop. On one 
side of him he will see crops growing lux- 
uriantly ; on the other side he will see nothing 
but the sage-brush desert. 

One of the most barren places was long 
used by the people of a mining town as a 
dump heap. They laughed when they heard 
that some men from Boston had bought three 



228 Winning the Oregon Country 

hundred acres of the despised land and were | 
planning to irrigate it. But they did not 
laugh when they saw the sage-brush disap- ijj 
pear and orchards of apple, peach, and cherry 
trees take its place. The fruit ripened ear- 
lier there than elsewhere in the West. Those 
three hundred acres soon became one of the 
richest parts of what has been called **The 
World ^s Fruit Basket.'' 

Millions of acres are covered by immense 
forests — the largest forests in the country. 
Hundreds of sawmills are cutting the trees 
into lumber for use all over the world, yet 
there are trees enough to last at the present 
rate of consumption until 1960. Wise men are 
asking the owners of the timber to be careful 
in the way they cut it and to plant new trees 
in the place of those they cut down, in order 
that these forests may last forever, for the 
benefit of future generations. 

The rivers down which the missionaries 
made their way from the mountains to the sea 
are as abundant in their gifts as the mines. 
If all the salmon taken from the Columbia in 
thirty years could have been loaded on 
freight cars at one time, the cars would make 
a train two hundred and eighty miles long. 



The Country Won 229 

These fish sold for enough to build a railroad 
from New York to San Francisco. 

On the rivers and in the valleys are towns 
and cities whose rapid growth is the wonder 
of the nation. Prosperous towns and villages 
are everywhere, several of them in spots 
made sacred by the homes of missionaries. 
Through the towns and cities great transcon- 
tinental railways have been built. Some of 
these lead to Puget Sound, an arm of the sea 
as large as several counties. Its waters are 
so deep that they give safe refuge to the larg- 
est vessels as these take on their cargoes for 
Asia. 

Those who have studied that great region 
say that some day fifty million people will 
make their homes there — as many as lived 
in the entire United States in 1880, or as 
now live in Canada and Great Britain. 

And this was the country which men once 
said was so worthless that they would not 
take it as a free gift ! 

Jason Lee, Marcus Whitman, and the 
men and women of faith who worked with 
them, had a very different notion. Because 
of God's blessing on their vision and their 
work, the great Northwest which Lewis and 



230 Winning the Oregon Country 

Clark had visited in 1805 was won for the 
United States. 

In 1905 the people of the old Oregon coun- 
try held at Portland, Oregon, a great expo- 
sition to celebrate the hundredth anniversary 
of this exploring tour of Lewis and Clark. 
It was the purpose of those who planned the 
exposition to call the attention of the world 
to the wonders of the States of Washington, 
Oregon, and Idaho, which have been carved 
out of the Oregon territory. There were com- 
paratively few who realized that attention 
would be called also to the beginnings of 
Christian missions in Oregon, or to the fact 
that the first missionaries gave the country 
its start as a part of the nation as well as a 
part of Christ's kingdom. But the eyes of 
many were opened and their hearts were 
lifted in praise to God as they read the thril- 
ling and inspiring story of the early days of 
consecrated service and willing martyrdom. 

What wonder if there are to-day in those 
States thousands who thank God that they 
live in a part of the country that was molded 
for Christian civilization by servants of the 
King! What wonder that those whose eyes 
have been opened love the cause of missions 



xV 



,.\ 



f 



f 



f w 



!^flMJ 







A LEADING BUSINESS THOROUGHFARE, PORTLAND, OREGON 



I 

i 



The Country Won 231 

and eagerly take their part in sending the 
gospel to people who have not heard it ! 

Among the tens of thousands of visitors 
who went to the Pacific Northwest during the 
exposition there were those to whom the won- 
ders of the land meant far more than to the 
average tourist, for they were thinking of the 
missionary pioneers whose faithful lives had 
made all this region holy ground. As they 
crossed the snow-clad mountains they thought 
of Whitman's winter ride, when he was buf- 
feted by storm, and was lost in the wilder- 
ness. As they passed down the valley of the 
Willamette, they pictured Jason Lee's lonely 
life and his perilous canoe trips through the 
rapids and among the cascades. When they 
looked on the fertile farms well supplied with 
cattle and implements, they had a vivid pic- 
ture of the six-hundred-mile trip to Califor- 
nia in search of Oregon's first cattle; of the 
persistent pioneer who would not be kept 
from taking the first wagon over the moun- 
tains ; of the long train of wagons that fol- 
lowed, and their burden of men and women 
and children; of the missionaries who led the 
way for these travelers, and the wives who 
welcomed to their homes the sick and the 



232 Winning the Oregon Country 

orphans. And as they beheld comfortable 
homes in secluded valleys or in busy cities 
and towns, they thought of the brave woman 
whose heart leaped for joy when — ^with the 
sound of howling wolves in her ears — she 
entered her log house with one room, and 
without windows or doors ! 

There were thoughtful pilgrims who went 
out of their way to stand for a little while at 
the peaceful spot where rest the bodies of the 
missionaries martyred at Wai-i-lat-pu. Eev- 
erently they read the inscription on the 
monument erected by grateful Christians. 
There must have been some who thought of 
the inscription carved on a tablet in St. 
PauPs Cathedral, London, to the memory of 
Christopher Wren, the architect of the great 
structure : * * Si quaeris monumentum, circum- 
spice!" (**If you seek his monument, look 
around you!") 

The monument of' "Whitman, and Lee, and 
Spalding, and Gray, and all the rest of the 
missionaries who gladly laid down their lives 
for the people of the Oregon Country, is the 
great valley of the Columbia. That region 
was won for Christ by their works of faith, 
their labors of love. 



INDEX 



Alton, Illinois, 165 

American, flag, 79; occupation 
of Oregon, 159; Sunday- 
School Union, 143 

Americans in Oregon Country, 
105, 125, 173; additions to, 
161, 165, 168, 175, 185 

Appearance, Whitman's, on 
reaching St. Louis, 181 

Asia, trade possibilities of, 
with Oregon Country, 161 

Assassin's work, an, 96 

Astor, John Jacob, 19 

Astoria, 20 



B 



Baby Whitman's death, 122; 
effect on the mission, 123, 
194 

Bancroft, Hubert H., quoted, 
196 

Baptisms, first Christian, in 
Oregon, 107; others, 151 

Barrows, quoted, 45, 61, 78 

Bewley, Miss, death of, 197 

Bible, attempt of Nez Perces 
to find, 25-41; doubts cast 
on the story, 47; doubts re- 
moved, 48; result, 42, 61, 62, 
8Y 

Bible stories deeply interest 
the Indian children, 93, 94 

Billy Williams, Indian elder, 
218; winning of his bride, 
127, 128 



Bitter Root Mountains, 14 
Bonneville, Captain, 27, 28 
"Book of Heaven," the, 25-42, 

68, 94, 98 
Boone, Daniel, referred to, 12 
Bread cast on the waters, 142, 

143 
British subjects in Oregon 

Country, 20, 58, 85, 173-175, 

188 
Buffalo country, 54 
Busy missionaries, 103 



C 



California, cattle brought 
from, 100 

Camping at night, 75 

Canadians in Oregon, 173 

Canton, China, Lewis and 
Clark map from, 16; sea- 
men trading at, 3, 4 

Captive whites, 199 

Cascade Mountains, climate 
M^est of, 226 

Cascades of the Columbia, dis- 
aster at, 144 

Catholic missionaries, 26 

Catlin, George, Indian pic- 
tures by, 40, 41 

Cattle, need of in farm work, 
99; brought from Califor- 
nia, 100, 101 

Cayuse, Indians, 85, 86, 119; 
parent makes trouble, 97, 
98; war, 202 

Children's hopes from mission 
schools, 91 



233 



234 Index 

China, fur trade with, 3-5 131; at Wai-i-lat-pu, 131; 

Chinook, Indians, 7; winds, under the Yakima braves, 

226 and Dr. Spalding, 213-216 

Cholera, successful treatment Cook, Captain, referred to, 4, 

of by Dr. Whitman, 69 9, 12 

"Cho-pun-nish," native name Council-fire talk, 17, 18 

for Nez Perces, 34 Cowlitz Plains, the, 58 

Christ. See Jesus Christ 

Christ Church, St. Louis, 35 D 

Christian, Indians, 94, 117, 

118, 150 - 152, 211 - 219; Dalles, The, of the Columbia^ 
whites, 152, 210, 211 104; disaster at, 144; work- 
Church, at Kamiah, 215; at ers sent to, 104 
Lapwai, 215, 216; at Ore- Dana, R. H., referred to, 101 
gon City, 152; at Spokane, Danger warnings to mission- 
215; at Wai-i-lat-pu, 131, aries, 96, 124, 146, 196, 201 
215, 216; later churches in- Diary quoted, Jason Lee's, 53; 
fluenced by the mission Lewis and Clark's, 15 
work, 209-211, 213, 216 Discovery, the ship, 34 

Civil and missionary history Distrust of Dr. Whitman, In- 
combined in Pacific North- dian, 124 
west, 91 Divide, the continental, 54, 66, 

Civilization, dawn of, in Ore- 187 

gon, 85; learning manual Doubts cast on Nez Perces 

work a part of it, 98, 99 delegation, 47; refuted, 48 

Clackamas River, 145 Downing, Susan, becomes Mrs. 

Clarissa Whitman, 120-122, Shepard, 107 
194 

Clark, General William, 12- E 
19, 33-38, 41, 48; Mrs., 36 

Clearwater River, 14, 83; Eells, Rev. Cushing, quoted, 

Spalding located on or near, 173; Whitman Seminary 

87 founded by, 221, 222 

Climate and soil, 183, 225-228 Effect on the mission of 

Columbia Rediviva, the, 10, 11 Clarissa Whitman's death, 

Columbia River, discovered, 123, 194 

10, 186; named, 11; mouth Ellis, chief at Kamiah, 141 

of, 136; region of, 5, 57, 59, Epidemic of measles, 192, 193 

149, 173, 225, 232; salmon Explorers in peril saved by 

from, 228, 229 Indian woman, 18 

Congress, petitions to, 158, 

159, 161, 167; results, 159, F 
168, 169 

Continental divide, 54, 66, 187 Faith of early workers justi* 

Conversions, along the Colum- fied, 229, 230 

bia, 149-152; at Lapwai, Family prayers, 114, 118 



I 



Index 



235 



Far-reaching act of unfurling 
American flag, 79 

Farms aid missions, 94, 113- 
119, 126, 127, 221, 222 

Farm work taught the In- 
dians, 94, 95, 98, 116-119, 
127 

Farnham, T. J., account of 
the mission by, 117 

Felice, the ship, 10 

First book printed at the mis- 
sion, 130 

First church in the Oregon 
Country, 130 

Fisheries in the Oregon Coun- 
try, 228, 229 

Fisk, Wilbur, quoted, 46 

Flathead Indians, 36, 55, 83 

Fletcher, Miss, 218 

Food demands at the mission, 
126 

Fourth of July, 1836, 79 

Fort, Hall, 177, 178, 184; Un- 
compahgre, 179; Walla 
Walla, 85, 202 

Fremont, J. C, referred to, 
151 

French Canadians, 105, 107, 
161 

French Prairie, 59 

"Fruit Basket, The World's," 
228 

Fur trade with China, 3-5 

Fur traders* caravan, 73, 75 

Funeral, first on the Pacific 
slope, 57 

G 

God, 49; Indian seekers of, 
25-42; name of, 118; pray- 
er to, 114, 122, 143, 150, 
178, 198; teaching about, 
19, 25-28, 35, 37, 56, 80, 147 

Gtold, discovery of at Sutter's 
Fort, Cal., 151 

Orant, Captain, 177, 184 



Gray, Captain Robert, 10 

Gray, W. H., mills built by, 
128; on the march, 74; quo- 
ted, 65, 232 

Green River and camp on, 67, 
79, 83; greeting from, to 
caravan, 80, 81 ; reception to 
the missionaries, 84 

Grubbs, F. N., 142 



H 



Hall, E. O., 129 

Hawaiian Islands, 161, 167. 
See also Sandwich Islands 

Hayes, Mrs., 197, 198 

Heceta, Bruno, explorer, 9 

Hines, Thomas Henry, quoted, 
3, 91, 142 

Hi-youts-to-han, Nez Perc6 
Indian, 30, 41, 42 

Ho-has-till-pilp, Nez Perce 
chief, 26 

Home ties lacking in the 
Northwest, 104 

Honest Indians, 114 

Horn, Cape, 136, 167 

Horseflesh and muleflesh as 
food, 14, 119, 180 

Horsemanship of Indians and 
traders, 80, 81 

Hudson Bay Company, 20, 25; 
barges of, 58; generosity 
of, 199; not favorable to 
settlers and missionaries, 
59, 60, 157; yet satisfaction 
expressed by gift, 99, 100 



Idaho, 17, 186, 216, 230; Uni- 
versity of, at Moscow, 128 

Imagined scene of mission 
children, 137, 138 

Immigrants influenced by the 
missionaries, 209, 210 



236 



Index 



Impressions made by the 
wives of the missionaries, 
82, 83 

Incantations of medicine-men, 
191 

Independence, Missouri, 49, 
50, 06 

Indian, agency as an evil in- 
fluence, 212; beliefs, 7, 8; 
boy*s speech about rum, 
1G6; boys in East with 
Whitman, 69, 74, 75; 
churches and members, 215, 
216; enemies, 54; finery, 83, 
84; wars, 208 

Indians, beliefs and early con- 
ditions, 7; hopes unfulfilled, 
9; ill-treated by whites, 20, 
21; legends of sea-faring 
people, 8, 9; murders by, at 
Wai-i-lat-pu, 197; pictures 
of by Catlin, 40; receive 
Lewis and Clark, 15; see 
ships arrive, 10, 11; trink- 
ets and other gifts for, 13; 
United States to protect, 
13; varied qualities of, 115- 
118; waiting for the Book, 
55; with Whitman in Rush- 
ville, New York, 66, 67 

Interest at Lapwai in the 
work, 130 

Iroquois, 25 

Ish-hol-hol-hoats-hoats, Nez 
Perc6 Indian, 55, 68 

Irrigation wonders, 227, 228 

Is-ti-kus, Christian Indian, 
125, 196 

I-tes, Indian boy, 65, 69, 73-75 



Jefferson, Thomas, 11, 12, 19 
Jesus Christ, 46, 72, 94, 118, 
122, 131, 149, 152, 159, 162, 
165, 196, 200, 230, 232 



K 



Kamiah, myth, 7; opposition 

at, 140, 141; revival results 

for church, 215; Valley, 17, 

41 
Ka-ou-pu, Indian, 30, 35, 36 
Ken-o-teesh, Indian boy, ill, 

and missionaries accused, 

96 
Kimball, Mr., of Indiana, 197, 

198 
Kip-ka-pel-i-kan, Nez Perc§ 

Indian farmer, 30 



Lapwai, Creek, 8; hostile In- 
dians, 200-202; mission sta- 
tion, 86, 87, 126, 139, 207; 
revival results, 131, 214- 
216; wrong agency influ- 
ence, 212; yet worship 
maintained, 211-213 

Lausanne, the ship, 167 

"Lawyer," Indian speaker, 
pleads for gospel help, 55, 
68 

Ledyard, John, 12 

Lee, Daniel, goes with Jason 
Lee, 49; officiates at wed- 
ding, 106, 107; perilous trip 
after cattle, 145 

Lee, Jason, birthplace, 203; 
called as Oregon mission- 
ary, 47, 48; conversion and 
early work, 48, 49; goes to 
Pacific slope, 50-57; has in- 
terview with Dr. McLaugh- 
lin, 58, 59; locates and de- 
velops mission on Willa- 
mette, 59-62, 91-108; mar- 
ries Miss Pittman, 106; 
talks remembered, 142, 143; 
tries to reach Urapquas, 
146-149; visits the East to 



Index 



237 



save Oregon, 157-169; work 
concluded, death, and 
bui'ial, 149-153, 164-167, 202, 
203 

Lee, Mrs. Jason, marriage, 
106; offers no objection to 
husband's Eastern trip, 160; 
pathetic close of life, 163; 
poetical lines, 164 

Legend of first ship seen by 
Indians, 8 

Leslie, Rev. David, 144 

Letters rare — and welcome, 
134, 135 

Lewis, Captain Meriwether, 
12 

Lewis, Joe, mixed-blood In- 
dian, 191 

Lewis and Clark expedition, 
12; outfit, 13; route and 
return, 13-19; tales of, 
among Indians, 26, 27; tree 
and rock records of, 17; 
Wat-ku-ese's help, 18 

Lewiston, Idaho, 86 

Liberty, Missouri, 54 

Linn, Senator, Oregon peti- 
tion sent to, 167 

Location of first school, 59 

London, 136 

Lord's Prayer in Indian 
tongue, 216 

Lord's Supper, first in Oregon, 
107; other occasions, 131, 
151 

Loriot, United States ship, 
101, 158 

Loupe Fork, 75 

Love joy. General, 176 

Lyman, quoted, 8, 25, 157, 
193, 207 

M 

McBeth, Kate C, quoted, 217 
McBeth, Miss Sue, bequest of. 



to Smithsonian Institution, 
207, 208 

Mackindon, William, 151 

McLoughlin, Dr., at Vancou- 
ver, 58-60; helpful to mis- 
sionaries, 85, 86, 100 

Mail facilities, 85, 134-136 

"Man-faced bears," 8 

Manual Labor School, 219, 
220 

Manuscript grammar and dic- 
tionary lost, 207; recovered, 
208 

Marriage unknown among In- 
dians, 104; first ceremony, 
105, 106; others, 106, 107, 
214 

Massacre planned, 195; plan 
executed, 197 

Matthew ix. 37, quoted, 135 

Matthew's Gospel translated 
by Mrs. Spalding, 211 

Meany, quoted, 191 

Meares, Captain, referred to, 
9 

Measles, outbreak of, 192, 193 

Medicine-men against the 
missionaries, 123 

Meek, leader in welcoming 
party, 79, 80 

Mills, early ones in Oregon 
Country, 45, 119, 128 

Millstone as a relic, 128 

Mission fields decided on, 58, 
59, 86; three early stations 
opened, 87 

Missionaries for Oregon Coun- 
try, called for, 46, 68, 71; 
on their way, 51-58, 73-86; 
quickly located and at 
work, 59-62, 86-153; under 
suspicion of the Indians, 
194, 195; warned in vain, 
and massacre at Wai-i-lat- 
pu, 196-199; yet ever-as- 



238 Index 

sured results, 202-222, 229- O 

232 J 

Mississippi River, journeying Ohio River, 13 ^ 

up the, 13 Oregon Country, 4, 5, 20; 

Missouri River, as part of area, 186, 226, 227; climate, 

route to Pacific Coast, 12, 226; entrance of civiliza- 

13 40 50 67 73 ^^^^ with Protestant mis- 
Monuments' to' pioneer mis- sionB,_ 61; missionaries ar- 

sionaries, 222, 232 "^e in, 5/, 77; prayer of 

Moscow, Idaho, relics at, 128 dedication / 9; present re- 

,, J. J nnr sources, 22/ -229; treaties 

Mowry, quoted, 225 „„„„„ ;^„ An -a ic? ^oa 

«,^ 1 1 n 4. » K concernmg, 49, oO, 157, 186; 

"Mozeemlek Country," 5 United States possession. 

Mule s guidance, a, 1/8 igg. ^j^jte settlers adapted 

Murderers of Whitman to develop its wealth, 174; 

scorned, 200 Whitman and Lee affect its 

political and religious his- 

N" tory and outlook, 165-169, 
182-188, 209-211, 229-232 

Neutrality treaty for Oregon Oregon, Institute and Univer- 

Country, 49, 50; renewed, sity, 220; State, 186, 209, 

157; superseded, 186 219-225, 230 

New Mexico route to the Osage Indians, New York, 70 

East, 177 

New York Christian Advo- P 

cate and Zion's Herald, let- . 

ter and call printed in, 36- Pacific Coast, 157, 220 

38, 45-47 Pacific Fur Company, 20 

Nez Percg dictionary and Parker, Rev. Samuel, 66, 68, 

grammar, 207, 208 69, 85 

Nez Perc6 Indians, 7, 14-19, Peaceful invasion wins Ore- 

26-28; delegation to St. gon, 185 

Louis, 29-42; farewell Peoria, Illinois, 165 

speech, 38-40; return of one Petitions to Congress, 159, 

man, 41, 42; welcome mis- 161, 167 

sionaries, 55, 80-87; work Peu-peu-mox-mox, Walla 

among, 126-140, 201, 202, Walla chief, 151 

210-219 Pioneer mission work pre- 

Nisqually Plains, 58 served, 208; evidences, 209; 

No man's land, 49, 50 results at Lapwai, 211, 212 

Nootka and Nootka Sound, 3- Pittman, Anna Maria, mar- 

5, 12 ries Jason Lee, 106 

Northwest Fur Company, 20 Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 50 

Northwest Passage, search Politics and the miseionaries, 

for, 8 158 



Index 239 

Portland, Oregon, CJentennial Rogers, Mr., 197-199 

Exposition, 230; Historical Rollins, Alice Wellington, 

Society's relics, 162, 197 poem by, 186 

Potato planting, 128; Billy's Route taken by letter, 136 

crop, 218 Rusbville, New York, Whit- 
Prayer of dedication, 79 man's home tov/n, 65-68 
Premonitions of danger, 191 
Prentiss, Narcissa, 69, 70; S 

marries Dr. Whitman, 73 

Printing-press at Lapwai, 129 Sabbath- keeping, Mrs. Spald- 

Protestant missions in Ore- va.g'a example, 201, 202 

gon, 61 Sager, John and William, 197, 

Puget Sound tribes, 58 198 

St. Louis, Missouri, 30, 32, 36, 

Q 181 

Salem, Oregon, school at, 220 

Quaker baptized by Jason Sandstone record of Lewis 

Lee, 107 and Clark expedition, 17 

Sandwich Islands, 85, 135 

R Scenery of Oregon Country, 
103 

Recapitulation of events lead- Sehafer, quoted. 111 

ing missionaries to the School work and schools, for 

Northwest, 61 Indians, 60, 61, 91-99, 119, 

Relative size of the Oregon 127, 130, 219; for whites. 

Country, 226; distances, 226 220-222 

Relics, millstone, at Moscow, Sermon, first west of the 

Idaho, 128; printing-press Rockies, 56 

and early copies of first Settlers helped by Dr. Mc- 

book, at Portland, Oregon, Loughlin, 59, 60 

130; tomahawk, at Port- Shepard, Cyrus, as teacher, 

land, Oregon, 197 91-94, 219; marriage, 107 

Religion, White Men's, 25 Shivwitz Indians of Utah, 

Repentant Nez Percys, 213, church among, 216 

214 Shoshone, Indians, 14, 18; 

Resolution, the ship, 4 church among, 216 

Results of pioneer religious Site of the Whitman massa- 

work, 209, 210 ere used for a school, 221 

Reverence for early mission- Slacum, Lieutenant, 101, 159 

aries, 209, 231, 232 Slaughter at the mission sta- 

Revival at The Dalles, 149; tion, 197-199 

incidents of, 150-152 Smithsonian Institution, Cat- 

Rich grain-field, 227 lin's work in, 40; manu' 

Rocky Mountains, crossing script intended for, 207, 208 

the, 13, 14; proposed na- So-yap-po, tha wowned ones, 

tional boundary, 169 18 



240 



Index 



Spalding, H. H., 70, 73; call 
to Oregon, 71; goes with 
Dr. Whitman, 72-85; mis- 
sion work at Lapwai, 86, 
87, 126-132, 139, 140, 200- 
202, 214-218; quoted, 197 

Spalding, Mrs. H. H., 72, 73, 
81, 120, 127, 201, 202 

Spanish ships, 9 

Spokane Indians, 140; church 
among, 216 

Steamer on the Missouri Riv- 
er, 40 

Stock company to buy cattle, 
100-102 

Sun worship, 19 

Sunday, 25 

Sutter's Fork, brave death of 
Indian, 152 

Sweetwater, meeting on the, 
80 



Tac-i-tu-i-tas, Indian boy, 65, 

69, 73-75 
Tact, Jason Lee's, 92 
Tam - suk - y, Indian who 

scalped Mrs. Whitman, 199, 

200 
Ta-wis-sis-sim-nim, Nez Perc§ 

Indian, 30, 38, 41 
Ti-lau-kait, Indian who 

helped kill Dr. Whitman, 

197 
Timothy, Christian Indian, 

tested, 132 
Tip-ya-lah-na-Jeh-nin, Nez 

Perc§ chief, 30, 35, 36 
Tomahawk, 197; used in the 

Whitman massacre, 197 
Traders' stories of Indian life 

and Oregon forests, 7 
Travel in the West, reasons 

for, 51, 59 



Treasure-seekers only, the fur 
traders, 20 

Treaties with England, con- 
cerning Oregon Country, 49, 
50, 157, 186 

Tree record of Lewis and 
Clark expedition, 17 

Tshi-ma-kain, 140 

Twenty-third Psalm in In- 
dian, metrical version, 217 

Tyler, President, 173 



U 



Umatillas, church among the, 
216 

Umpquas, the, 104, 146; 
treacherous welcome, 148, 
149 

Uncompahgre, Fort, 179 

United States, historical re- 
lations to Oregon Country, 
10-19, 33-38, 49, 50, 157, 186 

Utah, 216 

V 

Vancouver, Captain, 10; Fort, 

85, 86; Island, 3 
Victor, Mrs. F. F., quoted, 84 
Visits rare among early mis- 
sion workers, 137 

W 

Wagons as related to winning 
and settlement of Oregon 
Country, 74, 78, 184, 185; 
Indian interest in wheeled 
vehicles, 76, 77 

Wai-i-lat-pu mission, begin- 
ning, 86; progress, 111-126, 
130-138; tragic ending, 191- 
200 

Walla Walla, Fort, hospital- 
ity at, 85; Mr. and Mrs. 
Spalding safe at, 202 



Index 



241 



Walla Walla River, mission 
on the, 87; destruction and 
massacre by Indians, 195- 
199; leaders punished, 200 

Wasco Indians, 104 

Washington, city, 159, 175, 
180, 182, 183; State, 186, 
209, 220, 226, 230 

Wat-ku-ese, friendly Indian 
woman, 18 

Wealth of Oregon Country, 
226-229 

Webster, Daniel, 173 

Wedding journey adventures, 
73, 74; some discomforts, 
79; welcome on the way, 
81 

We-lap-tu-lekt, Cayuse In- 
dian, whose children died, 
96, 97 

Welcome addition to the 
mission party, 103 

Whisky and the missionaries, 
102 

White convert, the first, 107 

White male child, the first 
born in Oregon, 144 

White, Mrs., 144 

"White squaw baby," 120 

Whitman's Book of Heaven, 
26, 27, 28; journey to find 
it, 23-33; sad ending of 
journey, 36 

Whitman, Clarissa, 120-122 

Whitman, Marcus, account of, 
66-69; meets Spalding and 
Lee, 71, 162; mission work, 
86, 87, 115-125, 131; moth- 
er's words, 65; service in 
winning Oregon Country for 



the United States, 173-188; 
starts for Washington, 176; 
strenuous ride, 177-182, 186- 
188; successful return jour- 
ney, 182-184; willing mar- 
tyrdom, and permanent in- 
fluence, 176, 197, 198, 209, 
221, 222, 229-232 

Whitman massacre, 196-203 

Whitman, Mrs. Marcus, as a 
bride, 73-86; at her mission 
home, 111-114; holds family 
prayers, 114; resignation of 
in sorrow, 122; work ends 
as a heroic martyr, 197-199 

Whitman Seminary, 221, 222 

Wilbur, "Father," 212 

Willamette, Lee on the 
66, 68, 87; tribes of the, 58; 
University, 220 

Woman's courage, 74, 78; 
honored in camp and by 
traders and Indians, 80, 82 

Work by the way, Lee's, 53, 
56, 60, 164 

"Worthless tract," 225 

Wren, Christopher, inscrip- 
tion to, 232 

Wyandotte Indian account of 
Nez Perces, 36 

Wyoming, 67, 186 



Yakima braves, 212; become 

missionaries, 213 
Yellow Serpent, Walla Walla 

chief, 151 
Young, Ewing, 101 



Forward Mission Study Courses 



•'Anywhere, provided it be forwasd." — David Livingstone, 



Prepared under the direction of the 
MISSIONAEY EDUCATION MOVEMENT 

OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 

Editorial Committee: T. H. P. Sailer, Chairman; A. E. 
Armstrong, T. B. Ray, H. B. Grose, J. E. McAfee, C. B. 
Watson, John W. Wood, L. B. Wolf, G. F. Sutherland, H. P. 
Douglass. 



The forward mission study courses are an outgrowth of a 
conference of leaders in young people's mission work, held in 
New York City, December, 1901. To meet the need that 
was manifested at that conference for mission study text- 
books suitable for young people, two of the delegates, Pro- 
fessor Amos R. Wells, of the United Society of Christian 
Endeavor, and Mr. S. Earl Taylor, Chairman of the General 
Missionary Committee of the Ep worth League, projected the 
Forward Mission Study Courses. These courses have been 
officially adopted by the Missionary Education Movement, and 
are now under the immediate direction of the Editorial Com- 
mittee of the Movement. The books of the Movement are now 
being used by more than forty home and foreign mission 
boards and societies of the United States and Canada. 

The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering the 
various home and foreign mission fields and written by lead- 
ing authorities. 



The following text-books having a sale of 900,000 have 
been published: 

1. The Price of Africa. (Biographical.) By S. Earl 
Taylor. 

2. Into All the World. A general survey of missions. 
By Amos E. Wells. 

3. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. (Biograph- 
ical.) By Harlan P. Beach. 

4. Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. A study of Japan. 
By John H. DeForest. 

5. Heroes of the Cross in America. Home Missions. 
(Biographical.) By Don O. Shelton, 

6. Daybreak in the Dark Continent. A study of Africa. 
By Wilson S. Naylor. 

7. The Christian Conquest of India. A study of India. 
By James M. Thoburn. 

8. Aliens or Americans? A study of Immigration. By 
Howard B. Grose. 

9. The Uplift of China. A study of China. By Arthur 
H. Smith. 

10. The Challenge of the City. A study of the City. 
By Josiah Strong. 

11. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A study 
of the relation of the home Church to the foreign missionary 
enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown. 

12. The Moslem World. A study of the Mohammedan 
World. By Samuel M. Zwemer. 

13. The Frontier. A study of the New West. By Ward 
Piatt. 

14. South America: Its Missionary Problems. A study of 
South America. By Thomas B. Neely. 

15. The Upward Path: The Evolution of a Eace. A 
study of the Negro. By Mary Helm. 

16. Korea in Transition. A study of Korea. By James 
S. Gale. 

17. Advance in the Antilles. A study of Cuba and 
Porto Eico. By Howard B. Grose. 

18. The Decisive Hour of Christian Missions. A study 



f conditions throughout the non-Christian world. By John E. 
r. ikiott. 

} 19. India Awakening. A study of present conditions in 
J India. By Sherwood Eddy. 



>.) 



1 In addition to these courses, the following have been pub- 
lished especially for use among younger persons: 

1. Uganda's White Man of Work. The story of Alex- 
ander Mackay of Africa. By Sophia Lyon Pahs. 

2. Servants of the King, A series of eleven sketches 
of famous home and foreign missionaries. By Eobert E. 
Speer. 

3. Under Marching Orders. The story of Mary Porter 
Gamewell of China. By Ethel Daniels Hubbard. 

4. Winning the Oregon Country. The story of Marcus 
Whitman and Jason Lee in the Oregon Country. By John T. 
Faris. 

These books are published by mutual arrangement among 
the home and foreign mission boards, to whom all orders 
should be addressed. They are bound uniformly and are 
sold at 50 cents, in cloth, and 35 cents, in paper; postage, 
8 cents extra. 



f\ 



# 



^■^ 



7<? 






12.0 



40 







TO.^i^^ 







N/is^/, 






'Oat ^\ 






A 



-Ai 




90 



.f^- 



^ 



iV^ 












^ 



.ATj 



-^sS 



^^kL 









)kt^( 






St^ 



■ 40 




•30 



20 



90 



80 



'1' 






1 » 



* •!-'.•'. t 



■; • ■*. 



wv^ 



\^ 



1^ 















<^ 






^0 ^'^.•j'' -;> 




^^--^ 



&^.^ ^^ 



.^ 



s- 




-^^ 














H^^ 






.f 



0' 




<-^ 




^^-;^, 







'Jm' 'i^ 


















K> 




O *o«o- 0' 















■•^^^^- 















■^ 




^ 



.^^^ 





"oV^ 




o 



A 



<. 






A 











LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
' mil Hill 111 





017 185 171 3 
















